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" Likeness of Heaven!—Agent of Power! 
Man is thy victim!—Shipwreck thy dower! 
Spices and jewels, from valley and sea, 
Armies and banners are buried in thee! ” 














LIFE AND DEATH 

ON THE 

® © i /& kos 

A COLLECTION OF 

EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES, 

IN THE FORM OF 


PERSONAL NARRATIVES; 

ILLUSTRATING LIFE ON BOARD OF MERCHANT VESSELS AND OF SHIP8 OF 
war; combined with THRILLING RELATIONS of 
EXPERIENCES AND OF SUFFERING. 


ILLUSTRATED WITH ELEGANT TINTED ENGRAVINGS, FROM DESIGNS 
BY DARLEY, M’LENAN, HAMILTON, ETC. 


“ They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, these eee the works 
of the Lord and his wonders in the deep .”—Psalm cvii, 23-24. 


BY HENKY HOWE, 

AUTHOR OF “ HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF VIRGINIA,” “ OHIO,” AND “ THE GREAT WEST 
“TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF CELEBRATED TRAVELERS,” ETC. 



CIN CINN ATI; 
PUBLISHED BY HENRY HOWE. 

HI MAIN STREET. 

1 8 5 5 . 




Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by 
HENRY HOWE, 

In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court, for the Southern District of Ohio. 


5- 




E. MORGAN & SONS. 
STEREOTYPERS, PRINTERS, AND BINDERS, 
111 Main Street. 





PREFACE. 


Multitudes of books have been published upon life on the sea. 
These almost invariably are collections of only one of its many 
phases—its disasters. A few narratives of this kind are undoubt¬ 
edly attractive; yet he who attempts to read a series of only such, 
will discover, as he progresses, that his interest gradually weakens, 
until thoroughly palled, he casts the book from him, half unread, 
in disgust at its absence of variety. 

In these pages we have endeavored to present all that goes 
to form the life of the mariner, and in the natural connection to 
give descriptions of the hardships and perils, even unto death, 
in its most appalling forms, to which that life is peculiarly exposed. 
These are combined with personal narratives, the most attractive 
of all compositions, for they reveal to us not only the events them¬ 
selves in the minutest particulars, but excite intense sympathy by 
the disclosures of the thoughts and emotions which influence the 
minds and the hearts of the narrators. 

To most of us who have never been 44 far at sea,” the revelations 
of those whose lives have been passed upon the deep, are invested 
with a peculiar interest, from their novelty, and from their instruc¬ 
tion in human conduct, under circumstances so foreign to our own 
experience. The great truth illustrated by this is, that man is the 
same everywhere; and, furthermore, we possess in these incidents 
in the lives of our fellow-men, and the action of the same upon 
their characters, that which enlarges our own range of thought, 
and better prepares us for the performance of those duties which 
fall within our own peculiar sphere. 

( ui ) 



iv 


PREFACE. 


In preparing this work, we have had constantly in view the heavy 
responsibility which all incur who issue books, lest sentiments 
should be advanced and revelations unfolded of an evil tendency. 
While we have endeavored to excite, it has only been by the 
legitimate exercise of the varied emotions to which our common 
humanity is susceptible, and this is rarely otherwise than beneficial 
to our nature. 


CONTENTS 


Tais Perilous Voyage of Captain Norwood, an Officer of the Army of Charles 
the First, and the sufferings endured by himself and Companions, on a 
Desert Island, on the Coast of Virginia... 9 

Seven Years of a Sailor’s Life, among the Savages of the Caroline Islands .. 35 

Successful Resistance of Three Sailors against several thousand Savages.... 58 

Paddock’s Narrative of Bondage among the Arabs, detailing the Sufferings 
of the Master and Crew of the Ship Oswego, upon the Coast of South 
Barbary. 61 

The Abandonment of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish Sailor, on the Island of 
Juan Fernandez, where he dwelt in solitude for several years. 113 

Ethan Allen’s Narrative of his Captivity on board of British Vessels, in the 
Revolutionary War. 133 

Incidents in the War with Tripoli. 149 

The Chase of the United States Frigate Constitution by a British Squadron.. 161 

Description, by an English Sailor Boy, of the Battle between the American 
Frigate United States, and the British Frigate Macedonian, together with 
his subsequent Adventures in the American Naval Service during the War. 166 

The Extraordinary Sufferings of Donald Campbell, who, being shipwrecked, 
fell into the hands of the cruel Hyder Ali . 181 

The Captivity of Thomas Andros, since Pastor of the Church at Berkeley, 
Mass., on board the Old Jersey Prison-Ship. 195 

A Sailor’s Story of what he saw and suffered in the Naval Service of the 
United States, in the War of the Revolution.211 

(v) 











VI 


CONTENTS. 


The Narrative of the Mutiny of the Bounty, with the escape of Captain 
Bligli, and his Perilous Voyage of near four thousand miles, in an open 
boat, to the Island of Timor, together with the fate of Fletcher Christian, 
the Leader of the Mutineers, and the final Settlement of the latter at 
Pitcairn Island, in the Pacific Ocean. 233 

How they Live on board of an American Man-of-War; being the Experiences 
of a Sailor in the United States Navy. 261 

Narrative of an Old English Sailor, yet living, related by himself, in a Style 
of amusing Simplicity, which shows vividly the many vicissitudes which 
form Life Experiences on the Ocean. 285 

Destruction of the Ocean Steamer Arctic, by collision with the Vesta, a French 

( Propeller, on the Banks of Newfoundland, on Wednesday, the 27th of 
September, 1854, by which disaster more than three hundred persons 
perished. 323 

The Lost Russian Sailors, who were abandoned on the Desert Island of East 
Spitzbergen : to which is added the Narrative of the Misfortunes of the 
Crew of the Russian Ship St. Peter. 341 

Experiences of a Naval Officer, as given by Captain Basil Hall, of the Royal 
Navy. 357 

Narrative of a Sailor among Savages, being the Adventures of John R. 
Jewett, Survivor of the Crew of the Ship Boston, during a Captivity of 
nearly Three Years, among the Savages of Nootka Sound, by whom his 
Comrades were massacred. 387 

Adventures of Philip Ashton, of Massachusetts, who was taken by Pirates, 
escaped from them, and dwelt for sixteen months in solitude on a Desolate 
Island. 419 

Shipwreck of the French Frigate Medusa; as related by Mademoiselle Picard ; 
added to which is the Narrative of two of the Officers, who shared the 
unspeakable miseries of a raft full of her Sailors and Passengers, who were 
reduced to the necessity of feeding upon the Corpses of their Companions. 433 

The Story of Robert Drury, a Sailor Boy, who was Shipwrecked, Captured, 
and held in Slavery for fifteen years, by the Savages of Madagascar. 469 

Incidents in the Life of a Yankee Sailor, as detailed by William Nevens, in 
his Forty Years at Sea. 493 

Adventures of a Slave-Trader, who was engaged, for many years, in the 
African Slave-Trade. 521 













CONTENTS. vii 

Convict Life in Australia. How they get there, and what they get when there, 
together with a Narrative of Convict Life in Norfolk Island, the place for 
those too bad for Botany Bay. 551 

The Horrors of a Fire at Sea, as shown by the account of the Burning of the 
Prince, a French Vessel, Related by Lieutenant Fonda, one of her Officers. 571 

A Sailor’s Life and Duties.-.577 

Scenes on a Man-of-War in a Hurricane. 581 

A Man Overboard. 589 

Narrative of the Mutiny on the Somers, a brig-of-war in the American Naval 
Service—Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, commander—and of the Execution 
of Spencer, Cromwell and Small. 591 

Abstract of American Nautical Laws. 606 

Men and Things in the Navy of the United States, as described by the Rev. 
Charles Rockwell, late Chaplain in the American Naval Service.609 









4 




1 










■*' *•-*%**. 



THE PERILOUS VOYAGE 


OP 


CAPTAIN NORWOOD, 

AlfD THE HARDSHIPS ENDURED BT HIMSELF AND COMPANIONS ON A DESERT ISLAND ON THE 

COAST OF VIRGINIA. 


The month of August, A. D. 1649, being the time I engaged to meet 
my two comrades, Major Francis Morrison, and Major Richard Fox, at 
London, in order to a full accomplishment of our purpose, to seek our 
fortunes in Virginia, pursuant to our agreement, the year before, in Hol¬ 
land, all parties very punctually appeared at the time and place 
assigned; and were all still in the same mind, fully bent to put in prac¬ 
tice what we had so solemnly agreed upon. It fell out to be about the 
first day of September, A. D. 1649, that we grew acquainted, on the 
Royal Exchange, with Captain John Locker, whose bills upon the posts 
made us know he was master of a good ship, (untruly so called,) the 
Virginia Merchant, burden 300 tons, of force thirty guns or more. We 
were not long in treaty with the captain, but agreed with him for our¬ 
selves and servants, at six pounds a head, to be transported into James 
river: our goods to be paid for at the current price. 

About the fifteenth day, we were ordered to meet the ship at Graves¬ 
end, where the captain was to clear with his merchants, and we to make 
our several payments; which, when we had performed, we staid not for 
the ship, but took post for the Downs, where, with some impatience, we 
expected her coming there. About the sixteenth, we could see the 
whole fleet under sail, with a south-west wind; which, having brought 
them to that road, kept them there at anchor, until our money was almost 
spent at Deal. September 23d, the wind veered to the east, and we 
were summoned, by signs and guns, to repair on board. We had a fresh,, 
heavy gale for three days, which cleared us of the channel, and put us 
out of soundings. With this propitious beginning, we pursued our 
course for about twenty days, desiring to make the Western Islands; at 
which time the cooper began to complain that our water-cask was almost 
empty; alleging, that there was not enough in hold for our great family, 
(about three hundred and thirty souls,) to serve a month. We were 
now, by all accounts, near the Western Islands; Fyal was that we were 
likely first to see, and our captains resolved to touch there to supply this 
defect, as the most commodious port for our purpose. 

The day-break of October 14th, showed us the peak of that island. 
As soon as we had saluted the castle, and returned, for being civilly 
answered, Captain John Tatam, our countryman, did the same from 
aboard his goodly ship, the St. John. The English merchants, from the 
town, came on board our ship, and gave us a very civil welcome. Of 
them, one Mr. Andrews, invited me, with my two comrades, to refresh 




10 


PERILOUS VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN NORWOOD. 


ourselves with fruit and meat, such as the islands produced. Our 
captain dined with us at his house, and so did Captain Tatam, who, in 
like courteous manner, engaged us all to dine on board his ship the next 
day. We visited the peach-trees for our dessert, of which I took, at 
least, a double share: a little before the time of dinner, Captain Tatam 
had sent his boats to bring us on board his ship, and it was well for us he 
did so, our ship’s long-boat having been staved in pieces the night before, 
by the seamen’s neglect, who had all tasted so liberally of new wine, by 
the commodiousness of the vintage, that they lay up and down, dead 
drunk, in all quarters, in a sad pickle. The loss of our long-boat, as it 
was likely to make our watering tedious, and chargeable to the owners, 
so did it expose us to the hazard of many inconveniences and perils, in 
the whole course of our voyage. Our captain led the van into Tatam’s 
boat, which brought us safe on board the John. At our arrival, we were 
welcomed with a whole tier of guns, and with a very kind aspect in the 
captain. He gave us excellent wines to drink before dinner, and, at our 
meat, as good of other sorts, for concoction. There was a handsome 
plenty of fish and fowl, several ways cooked, to relish the Portuguese 
and English palates. While we were caressed in this manner on ship¬ 
board, the seamen on shore continued in their debauchery, with very 
little advance of our dispatch; the getting water was so tedious in itself, 
for lack of our boats, and so full of delays, by drunken contests of ours 
with the islanders, and with themselves; that, after some days stay upon 
the island, when our captain resolved to sail away, he found the ship in 
worse condition for liquors, than when we came on shore. For if we 
got a new supply of water, the proportion was hardly enough to balance 
the expense of beer, that was spent in the time we got in. 

'It was about the 22d of October, that we took leave of our landlord 
and Fyal. We had a store of black pigs for fresh meat, and I carried 
peaches without number. We parted with an easterly wind, a top-sail 
gale, which soon brought us into a trade wind, that favored us at fifty or 
sixty leagues in twenty-four hours, till we came to the height of Ber¬ 
mudas. The gale continued fair till November the 8th; then we 
observed the water changed; and heaving the lead, we had thirty-five 
fathoms of water, which was joyful news. Our want of all things 
necessary for human life made it so. Toward break of day, weary 
of my lodgings, I visited Mate Putts on the watch; and would have 
treated him with brandy, but he refused that offer, unless I could give 
him tobacco, which I had not. He said ft was near break of day, 
and he would look out to see what change there was in the water. No 
sooner were his feet upon the deck, but with stamps and noise he calls 
up the seamen, crying out, “ All hands aloft! breaches on both sides! all 
hands aloft!” 

The seamen were soon on deck with this dismal alarm, and saw the 
cause thereof; but instead of applying their hands for their preservation, 
through a general despondency, they fell on their knees, commending 
their souls, as at the last gasp. The captain came out at the noise to 
rectify what was amiss; but seeing how the case stood, his courage 
failed. Mate Putts, a stout seaman, took heart again, and cried, “ Is 
there no good fellow that will stand to the helm, or loose a sail?” But 
among all the ship’s crew, there were but two fore-mastmen that would 
be persuaded to obey commands; viz: Thomas Reaisin and John Smith, 
men of innate courage, who, for their good resolution, on that and divers 
other occasions in the various traverses of this voyage, deserve to have their 


STORM OFF CAPE HATTERAS. 


11 

names kept in lasting remembrance. One of them got up and loosened the 
fore-topsail, to put the ship, if possible, in steerage way, and under com¬ 
mand ; the other stood to the helm, and he shifted it in a nick of time ; 
for the ship was at the point of dashing on the starboard breach: and, 
although in the rest of the voyage, she was wont to be blamed for the ill 
quality of not feeling the helm, she did, in this important instance, 
redeem her credit, and fell round off for our rescue from that danger. 
But the joy of this escape lasted but a moment, for no sooner was she 
fallen from that breach, but another on the larboard bow was ready to 
receive her. 

The ship’s crew, by this time, reproached by the courage of Reaisin 
and Smith, were all at work; and the helm shifting opportunely, she fell 
off again as before. The light of the day, which now broke forth, 
discovered our condition to be altogether as perilous as possible; for we 
now saw ourselves surrounded with breaches. Scarce any water, like a 
channel, appeared for a way to shun them. In this sad condition, the 
ship struck ground, and raised such a war of water and sand together, 
which fell on the main chains, that now all hopes of safety were laid 
aside; but the ship being still afloat, and the seamen, all of them now 
under command, nothing was omitted for our preservation that was in 
their power. 

Tom Reaisin, seeing the ship go ahead, in the likeliest water for a 
channel, and ordering the helm accordingly, heaved the lead; and after 
a little further advance in that new channel, wholly against his hopes, he 
had a good deal of water more than the ship drew, which soon mended 
upon us; the next cast of the lead, affording eighteen or twenty feet. 
We stood to this channel, and the light of morning enabling the quarter¬ 
masters to con the ship, we were, by this miraculous mercy of God, soon 
clear of the breaches at Cape Hatteras, and got out to sea. No sooner 
was the ship freed of this danger, and got a little into the offing, but the 
seamen, like so many spirits, surveyed each other, as if they doubted the 
reality of the thing, and shook hands like strangers, or men risen from 
the other world; and did scarce believe they were what they seemed to 
be—men of flesh and blood. As they recovered force, they made what 
sail they could, to stand to leeward. 

The gale came fresh at north-west, and this fresh gale did soon grow 
up to a violent storm, which increased to so great a rigor, separating us 
from the land at the rate of eight leagues a watch, merely with our fore¬ 
courses; insomuch that the master thought it necessary to stop that 
career; and, in order thereunto, he did advise with his officers, to bring 
the ship about, to furl up sails, and to try with the mizzen. The moun¬ 
tainous, towering, north-west seas that this storm made, were so unruly, 
that the seamen knew not how to work the ship about. We were already 
at a great distance from land, and something must be done to hinder our 
running off at that excessive rate. The first thing they did, was to 
lower the mainyard, to give some ease to that mast, by laying it on the 
ship’s waste. Our great difficulty was how to deal so with the foresails, 
that the ship might work about with safety, or, at least, with as little 
hazard as possible. All hands were too little to haul the sheet close, in 
order to bring the ship about. Many great seas were shipped, as she 
came to work through the trough of the sea; among the rest, one 
chanced to break upon the poop, where we were quartered, and that with 
so sad a weight, that we guessed a ton of water, at least, did enter the 
tarpaulin, and set us all on float who were in the round-house. The 


PERILOUS VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN NORWOOD. 


12 

noise it made by discharging itself in that manner, was like the report 
of a great gun, and put us all in a horrible fright, which we could 
not soon shake off. This shock being past, the ship about, and our fore¬ 
sail hauled, we now lay trying with our mizzen. 

I cannot forget the prodigious number of porpoises that did that 
evening appear about the ship, to the astonishment of the oldest seaman 
in her. They seemed to cover the surface of the sea, as far as our eyes 
could discern; insomuch that a musket-bullet, shot at random, could 
hardly fail to do execution on some of them. This the seamen would 
look upon as of bad portent, predicting ill weather; but in our case, who 
were in present possession of a storm, they appeared too late to gain the 
credit of foretelling what should come upon us in that kind. The seas 
thus enraged, and all in foam, the gale still increasing upon us; the 
officers an the watch made frequent visits to the round-house, to prepare 
the captain for some evil encounter, which this mighty tempest must 
bring forth; and their fears proved reasonable; for, about the hour of 
ten or eleven, our new disasters did begin with a crash from aloft. All 
hands were summoned up with loud cries, that the fore-topmast was 
come by the board; not alone, but with the fore-masthead broken short 
off, just under the cap. This was a sore business, and put all to their 
wits’ end, to recover to any competent condition. Mate Putts was then 
on the watch, and did not want his apprehensions of what did soon ensue, 
which, in all likelihood, was to end in utter perdition; for, about the 
hours of twelve or one at night, we heard and felt a mighty sea break on 
our foreship, which made such an inundation on the deck, where the 
mate was walking, that he retired back with all diligence, up to his knees 
in water, with short ejaculations of prayer in his mouth, supposing the 
ship was foundering, and at the last gasp. This looked like a stroke of 
death in every seaman’s opinion. The ship stood stock still, with her 
head under water, seeming to bore her way into the sea. My two com¬ 
rades and myself, lay on our platform, sharing liberally in the consterna¬ 
tion. We took a short leave of each other, men, women and children; 
all assaulted with the fresh terror of death, made a most dolorous out¬ 
cry throughout the ship; while Mate Putts, perceiving the deck almost 
freed of water, called out aloud for hands to pump. This we thought a 
lightning before death; but gave me occasion, as having the best sea- 
legs, to look out, and learn the subject of this astonishing alarm; which 
proved to arise from no less cause than the loss of our forecastle, with 
six guns, and our anchors, (all but one that was fastened to our cable,) 
together with our two cooks, whereof one was recovered by a strange 
providence. 

This great gap, made by want of our forecastle, did open a passage 
into the hold, for other seas that should break there, before a remedy 
was found out to carry them off; and this made our danger almost 
insuperable. But it fell out, propitiously, that there were divers land- 
carpenter passengers, who were very helpful in this distress; and, in a 
little time, a slight platform of deal was tacked to the timbers, to carry 
off an ordinary sea; in the present strait we were in, every moment of 
this growing tempest, cutting out new work to employ all hands to labor 
The bowsprit, too heavy in itself, having lost all stays and rigging that 
should keep it steady, swayed to and fro, with such bangs on the bows, 
that at no less rate than the cutting it close off, could the ship subsist. 
All things were in miserable disorder, and it was evident our danger 
increased upon us. The stays of all the masts were gone, the shrouds 


A FRIEND IN NEED. 


13 

that remained, were loose and useless, and it was easy to foretell, our 
main-topmast would soon come by the board. Tom Reaisin, who was 
always ready to expose himself, with an ax in his hand, ran up with 
speed to prevent that evil; hoping thereby to ease the mainmast, and 
preserve it: but the danger of his person in the enterprise was so mani¬ 
fest, that he was called down again; and no sooner was his foot upon the 
deck, but what was feared came to pass with a witness. Both main and 
topmast all came down together, and, in one shock, fell all to the wind¬ 
ward clear into the sea, without hurt to any man’s person. 

Our mainmast thus fallen to the broadside, was like to incommode us 
more in the sea than in her proper station; for the shrouds and rigging, 
not losing the hold they had of the ship, every surge did so check the 
mast, whose butt-end lay charged to fall perpendicular on the ship’s side, 
that it became a ram to batter and force the plank; and was doing the 
last execution upon us, if not prevented in time by edge-tools, which 
freed the ship from that expected assault and battery. Abandoned, in 
this manner, to the fury of the raging sea; tossed up and down without 
any one regarding the loss of another; every man expecting the same 
fate, though in a different manner. The ceilings of this hulk, for it was 
no better, were, for the same cause, so uneasy, that, in many tumbles, 
the deck would touch the sea, and there stand still, as if she would 
never make another. Our mizzenmast only remained, by which we 
hoped to bring the ship about in proper season, which now lay stemming 
to the east. In this posture we passed the 10th and 11th days of 
November. The 12th, in the morning, we saw an English merchant, 
who showed his ensign, but would not speak with us, though the storm 
was abated, and the season more fit for communication. We imagined 
the reason was, because he would not be compelled to be civil to us. 
He thought our condition desperate, and we had more guns than he could 
resist, which might enable us to take what he would not sell or give. 
He shot a gun to leeward, stood his course, and turned his hoof upon us. 
Before we attempted to bring the ship about, it was necessary to refresh 
the seamen, who were almost worn out with toil and want of rest, having 
had no leisure of eating set meals for many days. The passengers, 
overcharged with excessive fears, had no appetite to eat; and, which 
was worst of all, both seamen and passengers were in a deplorable state 
as to the remaining victuals, all like to fall under extreme want; for the 
storm, by taking away the forecastle, having thrown much water into the 
hold, our stock of bread was greatly damaged; and there remained no 
way to dress our meat, now that the cook was gone: the incessant 
tumbling of the ship, as has been observed, made all such cookery 
wholly impracticable. The only expedient to make fire between decks, 
was by sawing a cask in the middle, and filling it with ballast; which 
made a hearth to parch peas, and boil salt beef. Nor could this be done, 
but with great attendance, which was many times frustrated by being 
thrown topsy-turvy, in spite of all circumspection, to the great defeat of 
empty stomachs. The seas were much appeased the 17th day, and 
divers ships saw, and were seen by us, but would not speak with us; 
only one, who kept the pump always going, for having tasted too liberally 
of the storm, he was so kind as to accost us. He lay by till our wherry, 
the only surviving boat that was left us, made him a visit. The master 
showed our men his leaks, and proposed, that ours would spare him 
hands to pump, in lieu of anything he could spare for our relief. He 
promised, however, to keep us company, and give us a tow to help to 


PERILOUS VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN NORWOOD. 


14 

weather the Cape, if occasion offered. But this was only a copy of his 
countenance; for in the night we lost each other, and we never heard 
more of him, though he was bound to our port. 

November 13th. The weather now invited us to get the ship about 
with our mizzen; and having done so, the next consideration was how 
to make sail. The foremast, all this while, as much as was of it, stood 
its ground; and as it was without dispute, that a yard must, in the first 
place, be fixed to it, so was it a matter of no small difficulty how to 
advance to the top of that greasy, slippery stump; since he that would 
attempt it could take no hold himself, nor receive any help for his rise 
by other hands. This was a case that put all the ship’s crew to a non¬ 
plus. But Tom Reaisin, a constant friend at need, that would not be 
baffled by any difficulty, showed, by his countenance, he had a mind to 
try his skill to bring us out of this unhappy crisis. To encourage him 
the more, all passengers promised and subscribed to reward his service, 
in Virginia, by tobacco, when God should enable us so to do. The 
manner of Tom Reaisin’s ascent, was thus: among the scattered parcels 
of the ship’s stores, he had the luck to find about half a dozen iron 
spikes fit for his purpose. His first onset was to drive one of them into 
the mast, almost to the head, as high as he could reach, which being 
done, he took a rope of about ten feet long, and having the same in a 
block or pulley, so as to divide it in the middle; he made both ends 
meet in a knot upon the spike, on both sides of the mast, so that the 
block, falling on the contrary side, became a stirrup to mount upon for 
driving another spike in the same manner: and thus, from step to step, 
observing the best advantage of striking with his hammer in the smooth¬ 
est sea, he got aloft, and drove cleats for shrouds to rest upon, and was 
soon in a posture of receiving help from his comrades, who got a yard 
and sails, with other accommodation, such as could be had; and thus 
were we enabled, in a few hours time, to make some sail for our port. 
The mainyard, that in the storm had been lowered to the waist, to lie 
out of harm’s way, was now preferred to the place of a mainmast, and 
was accordingly fitted and accoutered, and grafted into the stump of what 
was left in the storm, some eight or ten feet from the deck. It was a 
hard matter to find out rigging answerable to that new-fashioned mast and 
yard. Topgallant sails and yards were most agreeable for his equipage, 
and was the best part of our remaining stores. The seas grew every 
moment smoother, and the weather more comfortable, so that, for awhile, 
we began to shake off the visage of utter despair, as hoping ere long to 
see ourselves in some capacity to fetch the Cape. We discovered another 
ship bound to Virginia, who as frankly promised to stand by us, the wind 
at N.N.W. We did what could be done by a ship so mangled, to get the 
weather gauge of Cape Henry, conceiving ourselves to the southward 
of Cape Hatteras ; but, by taking an observation on a sunshiny day, we 
found ourselves carried by a current, we knew not of, to the windward, 
much beyond our dead reckonings, and allowances for sailing; insomuch, 
that when we thought we had been to the southward of the Cape, we 
found ourselves considerably shot to the north of Achomat; and ihat in 
the opinion of Mate Putts, who was as our north star. 

We passed this night with greater alacrity than we had done any other 
since we had left Fyal; for Mate Putts, our trusty pilot, did confidently 
affirm, that if the gale stood, there would be no question of our dining 
the next day within the Capes. This was reasonable news: our water 
being long since spent; our meat spoiled or useless; no kind of victuals 


A FATAL DISAPPOINTMENT. 


15 

remaining to sustain life, but a biscuit cake a day for a man; at which 
allowance there was not a quantity to hold out many days. In the dark 
time of the night, in tacking about, we lost our new comrade, and, with 
much impatience, we expected the approaching day; the wind N. W. 
The morning appeared foggy, as the wind veered to the east, and that 
covered and concealed the land from our clearer sight: howbeit, we con¬ 
cluded, by Mate Putt’s computation, we were well to the northward of 
the Capes. Many times he would mount the mizzentop for discovery, 
as the weather seemed to clear up; and would espy, and point at certain 
thum-works of trees, that used to be his several landmarks, in most of 
the twenty-two voyages he had made to that plantation. Under this con¬ 
fidence he made more sail, the daylight confirming him in what he 
thought right. All the forenoon we lost the sight of land, and marks by 
trees, by reason of the dark fogs and mists that were not yet dispelled ; 
but as soon as the sun, with a north-west gale, had cleared all the coast, 
which was about the hours of two or three o’clock, Mate Putts perceived 
his error from the deck, and was convinced that the thum-works of trees 
he had seen, and relied on for sure landmarks, had counter points to 
the South Cape, which had misguided him ; and that it was the opening 
of the bay, which made the land at distance, out of sight. 

This fatal disappointment, which was now past human help, might have 
met an easy remedy, had our sails and rigging been in any tolerable condi¬ 
tion to keep the windward gauge, for we had both the Capes in our sight. 
But, under our circumstances, it was vain to endeavor such a thing; all 
our equipage, from stem to stern, being no better than that of a western 
barge; and we could not lie within eleven or twelve points of the wind. 
Defeated thus of lively hopes we had the night before entertained, to 
sleep in warm beds with our friends in Virginia, it was a heavy spectacle 
to see ourselves running at a round rate from it, notwithstanding all 
that could be done to the contrary. Nothing was now to be heard but 
sighs and groans through all that wretched family, which must be soon 
reduced to so short allowance as would just keep life and soul together. 
Half a biscuit cake a day, of which five whole ones make a pound, was 
all we had to trust to. Of liquors there remained none to quench thirst; 
Malaga served rather to inflame and increase thirst, than to extinguish 
it. The gale blew fresh toward night, and made a western sea, that 
carried us off at a great rate. Mate Putts, extremely abashed to see his 
confidence so miserably deluded, grew sad and contemplative, even to 
the moving compassion in those whom his unhappy mistake had reduced 
to misery. We cherished him the best we could, and would not have 
him so profoundly sad, for what was rather his misfortune than his fault. 
The wind continued many days and nights to send us out into the ocean; 
insomuch, that until we thought ourselves at least a hundred leagues 
from the Capes, the north-west gale gave us no truce to consider what 
was best to do. All little helps were used by topgallant sails, and masts 
placed where they could be fixed, to keep the windward tack; but, for 
want of borolins and other tackle to keep them stiff to draw, every great 
head sea would check them in the wind, and rend, and tear them in pieces; 
so that it was an ordinary exercise with us to lie tumbling in the sea, a 
watch or two together, driving to leeward, while the broken sails were in 
hand to be repaired. 

November 19th. To give us a little breathing, about the nineteenth 
day, the wind shifted to the east, but so little to our avail, the gale so 
gentle, -and the seas made against us like a strong current, that, with the 


PERILOUS VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN NORWOOD. 


16 

sail we were able to make, we could hardly reckon the ship shortened 
the way, but that she rather lost ground. In less than two watches, the 
gale faced about; and if we saved our own by the change, it was all we 
could pretend unto. Our mortal enemy, the north-west gale, began 
afresh to send us out to sea, and to raise our terrors to a higher pitch. 
One of our pumps grew so unfixed, that it could not be repaired; the 
other was kept in perpetual motion; no man was excused to take his 
turn that had strength to perform it. Among the manifest perils that 
threatened every hour to be our last, we were in mortal apprehension 
that the guns, which were aloft, would show us a slippery trick, and some 
of them break loose, the tackle that held them being grown very rotten; 
and it was another providence they held so long, considering how im¬ 
moderately the ship rolled, especially when the sails were mending that 
should keep her steady, which was very near a third part of our time, 
while we plied to the windward with a contrary gale. To prevent this 
danger, which must befall when any one gun should get loose, Mate 
Putts found an expedient; by a more than ordinary smooth water, and by 
placing timber on the hatchway, to supply the place of shrouds, he got 
them safe in hold which tended much to our good, not only in removing 
the present danger, but by making the ship, as seamen say, more whole¬ 
some, by having so great a weight removed from her upper works into 
her center, where ballast was much wanted. But the intolerable want 
of all provision, both of meat and drink, jostled the sense of this happi¬ 
ness soon out of our minds; and to aggravate our misery yet the more, 
it was our interest to pray that the contrary gale might stand; for, while 
the westerly wind held, we had rain-water to drink, whereas at east the 
wind blew dry. In this miserable posture of ship and provision, we 
reckoned ourselves driven to the east, in less than a week’s time, at least 
two hundred leagues, which we despaired ever to recover without a 
miracle of Divine mercy. The storm continued so fresh against us, 
that it confounded the most knowing of our ship’s company in advising 
what course to take. Some reckoned the ship had made her way most 
southerly, and, therefore, counseled we should put ourselves in quest of 
the Bermuda Islands, as the nearest land we could hope to make; 
but that motion had great opposition in regard of the winter season, 
which would daily produce insuperable difficulties, and give greater 
puzzle in the discovery of it than our circumstances would admit. Back¬ 
ward we could not go, nor forward we could not go, in the course we 
steered; it followed then, of course, that we must take the middle 
way; and it was resolved, that, without further persisting in endeavoring 
to gain our port by a close hale, we should raise our tackle, and sail 
tardy for the first American land we could fetch, though we ran to the 
leeward as far as the coast of New England. 

While this determination was agreed and put in practice, the famine 
grew sharp upon us. Women and children made dismal cries, and 
grievous complaints. The infinite number of rats, that all the voyage 
had been our plague, we now were glad to make our prey to feed on; 
and, as they were ensnared and taken, a well-grown rat was sold for 
sixteen shillings, as a market-rate. Nay, before the voyage ended, (as 1 
was credibly informed,) a woman, great with child, offered twenty shil¬ 
lings for a rat, which the proprietor refusing, the woman died. Many 
sorrowful days and nights we spun out in this manner, till the blessed 
feast of Christmas came upon us, which we began with a very melan¬ 
choly solemnity; and yet, to make some distinction of times, the scrapings 



Entered according to Act of Congress, A. D. mdocclt, by H. Howe,, in the clerk’s office of the 


of the U. S. for the S. Dist. of Ohio. 






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“ At sunset the slaves are stowed for the night; the officers, with whip in hauB, ranging the slaves—those on the right 
side facing the bows, those on the left side facing the stern—so as to bring eali negro on bis right side, and thus allow 
better action for the heart.”—Page 527. 































































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TANTALIZING DREAMS. 


IT 

of the meal-tubs were all amassed together to compose a pudding. 
Malaga sack, sea-water, with fruit and spice, all well fried in oil, were 
the ingredients of this regale, which raised some envy in the spectators ; 
but, allowing some privilege to the captain’s mess, we met no obstruction, 
but peaceably enjoyed our Christmas puddiug. 

My greatest impatience was of thirst, and my dreams were all of cel¬ 
lars, and taps running down my throat, which made my waking much 
the worse by that tantalizing fancy. Some relief I found very real, by 
the captain’s favor in allowing me a share of some butts of small claret, 
he had concealed in a private cellar for a dead lift. It wanted a mixture 
of water for qualifying it to quench thirst; however, it was a present 
remedy, and a great refreshment to me. The westerly wind continued 
to shorten our way to the shore, though very distant from our port; but 
this did not at all incline us to change our resolution of sailing large for 
the first land; it rather animated and supported us in our present fatigue: 
the hopes of touching land was food and raiment to us. In this weari¬ 
some expectation, we passed our time for eight or nine days and nights, 
and then we saw the water change color, and had soundings. We 
approached the shore the night of January 3d, with little sail; and as 
the morning of the fourth day gave us light, we saw the land, but in 
what latitude we could not tell; for that the officers, whose duty it was 
to keep the reckoning of the ship, had for many days past totally omitted 
that part; nor had we seen the sun a great while, to take observations, 
which, though a lame excuse, was all they had to say for that omission. 
But, in truth, it was evident that the desperate state of the ship, and 
hourly jeopardy of life, made them careless of keeping either log or 
journal; the thoughts of another account, they feared to be at hand, 
made them neglect that of the ship as inconsiderable. 

About the hours of three or four in the afternoon of the twelfth eve, 
we were shot in fair to the shore. The evening was clear and calm, the 
water smooth; the land we saw nearest was some six or seven English 
miles distant from us; our soundings twenty-five fathoms in good ground 
for anchor hold. These invitations were all attractive to encourage the 
generality, especially the passengers, to execute what had been resolved 
on for the shore; but one old officer, who was husband for the ship’s 
stores, while there were any, would not consenl, on any terms, to trust 
the only anchor of any service that was left us for preservation out of his 
sight at sea. His arguments to back his opinion were plausible; as, 
first, the hazard of losing the only anchor by any sudden storm, bringing 
with it a necessity to cut or slip, on which every life depended; secondly, 
the shortness of the cable, very unfit for anchoring in the ocean; and 
thirdly, the weakness of the ship’s crew, many dead and fallen over¬ 
board ; and the passengers, weakened by hunger, dying every day on 
the decks, or at the pump, which, with great difficulty, was kept going, 
but must not rest. 

Against the old man’s reasoning, was urged the very small remains of 
biscuit, to our short allowance, which would hardly hold a week; the 
assurance of our loss by famine, if we should be forced to sea again, by 
a north-west storm; and the greatest possibility of finding a harbor to 
save our ship, with our lives and goods, in some creek on the coast. 
These last reasons prevailed upon the majority against all negatives; and 
when the anchor was let loose. Mate Putts was ordered to make the first 
discovery of what we might expect from the nearer land. He took with 
him twelve sickly passengers, who fancied the shore would cure them, 
2 


PERILOUS VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN NORWOOD. 


18 

and carried Major Morrison on shore with him. In four or five hours 
time, we could discover the boat returning with Mate Putts alone for a 
setter, which we looked upon as a signal of happy success. When he 
came on board, his mouth was full of good tidings; as, namely, that he 
discovered a creek that would harbor our ship, and that there was a 
depth of water on the bar, sufficient for her draught when she was light; 
that there was excellent water; (a taste whereof Major Morrison had 
sent me in a bottle;) that the shore swarmed with fowl; and that Major 
Morrison staid behind in expectation of the whole ship’s company to 
follow. 

I opened my ears wide to the motion, and promoted the design of our 
landing there with all the rhetoric and interest I had. The captain was 
no less forward for it, hoping thereby to save the lives of the passengers 
that remained; and, that he might not wholly rely on Mate Putts’ judg¬ 
ment, in a matter wherein he was most concerned, he embarked with me 
in the wherry, with a kinsman of his, and some others; and the seamen 
were glad of my help to put the boat to shore, my hands being very well 
seasoned at the pump by taking my turn for many weeks, at the rate of 
three hours in twenty-four. My passionate desires to be on shore, at the 
fountain head, to drink without stint, did not a little quicken me ; inso¬ 
much, that the six or seven miles I rowed on this occasion, were no more 
than the breadth of the Thames at London, at another time, would have 
been toilsome to me. In our passage to the shore, the darkness of the 
evening made us glad to see the fires of our friends at land, which were 
not only our beacons to direct us to their company, but were also a com¬ 
fortable relief to our chilled bodies when we came near them, the 
weather being very cold, as it ever is; the wind blowing north-west on 
that coast. As soon as I had set my foot on land, and had rendered 
thanks to the Almighty for opening this door of deliverance to us, after 
so many rescues, even from the jaws of death at sea, Major Morrison was 
pleased to oblige me beyond all requital, in conducting me to the run¬ 
ning stream of water, where, without any limitation of short allowance, 

1 might drink my fill. I was glad of so great liberty, and made use of 
it accordingly, by prostrating myself on my belly, and setting my mouth 
against the stream, that it might run into my thirsty stomach without 
stop. The rest of the company were at liberty to use their own methods 
to quench their thirst; but this I thought the greatest pleasure I ever 
saw on earth. 

After this sweet refreshment, the captain, myself, and his kinsman, 
crossed the creek in our wherry, invited thither by the cackling of wild 
fowl. The captain had a gun charged; and the moon shining bright in 
his favor, he killed one duck of the flock that flew over us, which was 
roasted on the stick out of hand by the seamen, while we walked on the 
shore of the creek for further discovery. In passing a small stream, we 
trod on an oyster-bank, that happily furnished us with a good addition 
to our duck. When the cooks had done their parts, we were not long 
about ours, but fell on without using the ceremony of calling the rest of 
our company, which would have been no entertainment to so many—the 
proverb telling us, “ The fewer the better cheer.” The bones, head, 
legs and inwards were agreed to be the cooks’ fees; so wo gave God 
thanks, and returned to our friends without making boast of our good 
fortunes. 

Fortified with this repast, we informed ourselves of the depth of water 
at the bar of the creek, in which the captain seemed satisfied, and made 


MISERY UPON A DESERT ISLAND. 


19 

shows, in all his deportment, of his resolution to discharge his ship there, 
in order to our safety. Toward break of day, he asked me in my ear, 
if I would go back with him on board the ship. I told him no; because 
it would be labor lost, in case he would persist in his resolution to do 
what he pretended; which he ratified again by protestations, and so went 
off with his kinsman, who had a large, coarse, cloth gown, I borrowed of 
him to shelter me from the sharpest cold I ever felt. No sooner had the 
captain cleared himself of the shore, but the day-break made me see my 
error in not closing with his motion in my ear. The first object we saw 
at sea, was the ship under sail, standing for the Capes, with what canvas 
could be made to serve the turn. It was a very heavy prospect to us, 
who remained, we knew not where, on shore, to see ourselves thus aban¬ 
doned by the ship; and more, to be forsaken by the boat, so contrary to 
our mutual agreement. Many hours of hard labor and toil were spent 
before the boat could fetch the ship; and the seamen, whose act it was 
to set sail without the captain’s order, (as we were told after,) cared not 
for the boat, while the wind was large to carry them to the Capes. But 
Mate Putts, who was more sober, and better natured, discovering the 
boat from the mizzentop, lay by till she came with the captain on board. 

In this amazement and confusion of mind, that no words can express, 
did our miserable, distressed party condole with each other, on our being so 
cruelly abandoned, and left to the last despairs of human life, or, indeed, 
of ever seeing more the face of man. We entered into a sad consulta¬ 
tion what course to take; and having, in the first place, by united prayers, 
implored the protection of Almighty God, and recommending our miser¬ 
able state to the same Providence which, in so many instances of mercy, 
had been propitious to us at sea: the whole party desired me to be, as it 
were, the father of the distressed family, to advise and conduct them in 
all things I thought might most tend to our preservation. At the same 
time I quitted the ship, my servant, Thomas Harman, a Dutchman, did, 
at parting, advertise me, (for I left him on board to look to my goods,) 
that in the bundle I ordered to be carried with me on shore, I should find 
about thirty biscuit cakes, which he, by unparalleled frugality, had saved 
out of his own belly, in the great dearth and scarcity we lived in. The 
thoughts of these biscuits entering upon me at the time I was pressed to 
accept this charge, I thought myself obliged, in Christian equity, to let every 
one partake of what I had; and so, dividing the bread into nineteen parts, 
which was our number, perhaps I added the fraction to my own share. 

It was, to the best of my remembrance, upon the 5th day of January, 
1650, that we entered into this method of life, or rather into an orderly 
way into our graves; since nothing but the image of death was represented 
to us. But that we might use our utmost endeavors to extract all 
the good we could out of those evil symptoms that every way seemed 
to confound us, I made a muster of the most able bodies for arms and 
labor; and, in the first place, I put a fowling-piece into every man’s 
hand that could tell how to use it. Among the rest, a young gentleman, 
Mr. Francis Cary by name, was very helpful to me in the fatigue and 
active part of this undertaking. 

All our woodmen and fowlers had powder and shot given them, and 
some geese were killed for supper. Evening came on apace, and our 
resolution being to stay one night more in these quarters, I sent my 
cousin, Cary, to head the creeks, and make what discovery he could, as 
he passed along the shore, whether of Indians, or any other living 
creatures? that were likely to relieve our wants or end our days. 


20 


PERILOUS VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN NORWOOD. 


My cousin Cary was not absent much above an hour, when we saw 
him return in a contrary point to that he sallied out upon. His face was 
clouded with ill news he had to tell us, namely, that we were now 
residing on an island without any inhabitants, and that he had seen its 
whole extent, surrounded, as he believed, with water deeper than his 
head; that he had not seen any native, or anything in human shape, in 
all his round; nor any other creature beside the fowls of the air, which 
he would, but could not, bring unto us. This dismal success, of so 
unsuccessful a nature, startled us more than any single misfortune that 
had befallen us and was like to plunge us into utter despair. We beheld 
each other as miserable wretches sentenced to a lingering death, no man 
knowing what to propose for prolonging life any longer than he was able 
to fast. My cousin, Cary, was gone from us without notice, and we had 
reason, from what followed, to believe he was under the conduct of an 
angel; for we soon saw him return with a cheerful look, his hands 
carrying something we could not distinguish by any name at a distance; 
but, by nearer approach, we were able to descry they were a parcel of 
oysters, which in crossing the island, as he stepped over a small current of 
water, he trod upon to his hurt; but laying hands on what he felt with 
his feet, and pulling it with all his force, he found himself possessed of 
this booty of oysters, which grew in clusters, and were contiguous to a 
large bank of the same species, that was our staple subsistence while we 
remained there. While this very cold season continued, great flights of 
fowl frequented the island—geese, ducks and curlieus; and some of every 
sort we killed and roasted on sticks, eating all but the feathers. It was 
the only perquisite belonging to my place of preference to the rest, that 
the right of carving was annexed to it; wherein, if I was partial to my 
own interest, it was in cutting the wing as large and full of meat as 
possible, whereas the rest was measured out, as it were, with scale and 
compass. But, as the wind veered to the southward, we had greater 
warmth and fewer fowl; for they would then be gone to colder climates. 
In their absence we were confined to the oyster-bank, and a sort of weed, 
some four inches long, as thick as house leek, and the only green (except 
pines) that the island afforded. It was very insipid on the palate, but 
being boiled with a little pepper, of which one had brought a pound on 
shore, and helped with five or six oysters, it became a regale for every 
one in turn. 

In quartering our family we observed the decency of distinguishing 
sexes. We made a small hut for the poor weak women to* be by them¬ 
selves. Our cabin for men was of the same fashion, but much more 
spacious, as our numbers were. One morning, in walking on the shore 
by the seaside, with a long gun in my hand, loaded with small shot, I 
fired at a great flight of small birds, called oxeyes, and made great slaugh¬ 
ter among them, which gave refreshment to all our company. But this 
harvest had a short end; and as the weather, by its warmth, chased the 
fowl to the north, our hunger grew keener upon us; and, in fine, all the 
strength that remained unto us was employed in a heartless struggle to 
spin out life a little longer; for we still deemed ourselves doomed to die 
by famine, from whose sharpest and most immediate darts, though we 
seemed to be rescued for a small time, by meeting these contingent 
helps on shore, yet still we apprehended (and that on too great proba¬ 
bility) they only served to reprieve us for a little longer day of execu¬ 
tion, with all the dreadful circumstances of a lingering death: for the 
south-west winds, that had carried away the fowl, brought store of rain, 


THE LIVING FEED UPON THE DEAD. 


21 

which, meeting with a spring-tide, our chief magazine, the oyster-bank, 
was overflown; and, as they became more accessible, our bodies also 
decayed so sensibly, that we could hardly pull them out of the muddy 
beds they grew on; and from this time forward we rarely saw the fowl; 
they now grew shy, and kept aloof when they saw us contriving against 
their lives. Add to this, our guns, most of them unfixed and out of 
order, and our powder much decayed; insomuch, that nothing did now 
remain to prolong life, but what is counted rather sauce to whet, than 
substance to satisfy the appetite. I mean the oysters, which were not 
easily gotten by our crazy bodies, after the quantity was spent that lay 
most commodious to be reached, and which had fed us for the first six 
days we had been on the island. 

Of the three weak women before mentioned, one had the envied hap¬ 
piness to die about this time; and it was my advice to the survivors, who 
were following her apace, to endeavor their own preservation by con¬ 
verting her dead carcass into food; as they did to good effect. The same 
counsel was embraced by those of our sex. The living fed upon the 
dead ; four of our company having the happiness to end their miserable 

lives on Sunday night, the-day of January. Their chief distemper, 

it is true, was hunger; but it pleased God to hasten the exit by an 
immoderate access of cold, caused by a most terrible storm of hail and 
snow, at north-west, on the Sunday aforesaid, which not only dispatched 
those four to their long homes, but sorely threatened all that remained 
alive, to perish by the same fate. Great was the toil that lay on my 
hands, as the strongest to labor, to get fuel together sufficient for our 
preservation. In the first place, I divested myself of my great gown, 
which I spread at large, and extended against the wind, in lieu of a 
screen, having first shifted our quarters to the most calm, commodious 
place that could be found, to keep us as much as possible from the 
inclemency of that prodigious storm. Under the shelter of this traverse, 
I took as many of my comrades as could be comprehended in so small a 
space ; whereas, those who could not partake of that accommodation, 
and were unable to make provision for themselves, were forced to suffer 
for it; and it was remarkable, that notwithstanding all the provision that 
could possibly be made against the sharpness of this cold, either by a 
well burning fire, consisting of two or three loads of wood, or shelter of 
this great gown to the windward, we could not be warm. That side of 
our wearing clothes was singed and burnt, which lay toward the flames, 
while the other side, that was from the fire, became frozen and congealed. 
Those who lay to the leeward of the flame could not stay long to enjoy 
the warmth so necessary to life, but were forced to quit and be gone, to 
avoid suffocation by the smoke and flame. 

When the day appeared, and the sun got out to dissipate the clouds, 
with downcast looks and dejected, the survivors of us entered into a 
final deliberation of what remained to be done on our parts, beside our 
prayers to Almighty God, to spin out a little longer time of life, and wait 
a further Providence from heaven for our better relief. There were still 
some hands that retained vigor, though not in proportion to those 
difficulties we were to encounter, which humanly did seem insuperable. 
Major Morrison, on whose counsel I had reason to rely most, was 
extremely decayed in his strength, his legs not being able to support him. 
It was a wonderful mercy that mine remained in competent strength, for 
our common good, which I resolved, by God’s help, to employ for that 
end to the last gasp. In this last resolution we had to make, I could not 



22 


PERILOUS VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN NORWOOD. 


think on anything worthy my proposal, but by an attempt to cross the 
creek, and swim to the main, which was not above a hundred yards over; 
and, being there, to coast along the woods to the south-west, which was 
the bearing of Virginia, until I should meet Indians, who would either 
relieve or destroy us. To fortify me for this expedition, it was neces¬ 
sary that some provision should be made for a daily support to me in 
this my peregrination. Our choice was small; our only friend, the oyster- 
bank, was all* we had to rely on, which, being well stewed in their 
own liquor, and put up in bottles, I made no doubt, by God’s blessing, 
but that two of them, well filled, would suffice to prolong my life, in 
moderate strength, until I had obtained my end. To accomplish this 
design, my cousin Cary labored hard for oysters, hoping to make one 
in the adventure. 

January 14. About the ninth day of our being in the island, I fell to 
my oyster cookery, and made a progress that very day. When in the 
heat of my labor, my cousin Cary brought me word, that he had just 
in that instant seen Indians walking on the main. I suspended my 
cookery out of hand, and hastened, with all possible speed, to be an eye¬ 
witness of that happy intelligence; but with all the haste I could make, I 
could see no such things, but judged it a chimera that proceeded from 
some operation in my cousin’s fancy, who was more than ordinary of a 
sanguine nature, which made him see as it were, by enchantment, things 
that were not, having many times been deluded, as I judged, by the 
same deception. 

Defeated in this manner of my hopes to see Indians, without the pains 
of seeking them, I returned to my work, and continued at it till one 
bottle was full, and myself tired; therefore, that I might be a little 
recreated, I took a gun in my hand, and, hearing the noise of geese on 
the shore, I approached them privately, and had the good fortune to be 
the death of one. This goose, now in my possession, without witnesses, 
I resolved to eat alone, deducting the head, bones, guts, etc., which 
were the cooks fees, hoping thereby to be much the better enabled to 
swim the creek, and perform the work I had upon my hands. I hung 
my goose upon the twist of a tree, in a shrubby part of wood, while I 
went to call our cook, with his broach and a coal of fire, to begin the 
roast. But when we came to the place of execution, my goose was 
gone all but the head, the body stolen by wolves, which, the Indians told 
us after, abound greatly in that island. 

The loss of this goose, which my empty stomach looked for with nty 
small hopes of satisfaction, did vex me heartily. I wished I could have 
taken the thief of my goose, to have served him the same kind, and to 
have taken my revenge in the law of retaliation. But that which trou¬ 
bled me more, was an apprehenson that came into my mind, that this 
had been the effect of divine justice on me, for designing to deal 
unequally with the rest of my fellow-sufferers, which I thought, at first 
blush, looked like a breach of trust; but then again, when I considered 
the equity of the thing, that I did it merely to enable myself to attain their 
preservation, and which otherwise I could not have done, I found I could 
absolve myself from any guilt of that kind. Whatever I suffered from 
this disappointment, the cook lost not all his fees ; the head and neck 
remained for him on the tree. Being thus overreached by the wolf, it 
was time to return to my cookery, in order to my sally out of the island 
for I had little confidence in the notice frequently brought me, of more 
and more Indians seen on the other side, since my own eyes could never 


FRIENDLY VISITORS. 


23 

bear witness of their being there. The next morning, being the ninth or 
tenth of our being there, I fell to work afresh, hoping to be ready to 
begin my journey that day; and, being very busy, intelligence was 
brought that a canoe was seen to lie on the broken ground to the south 
of our island, which was not discovered till now since our being there ; 
but this I thought might be a mistake, cast in the same mold of many 
others, that had deceived those discoverers, who fancied all things real 
according to their own wishes. But when it was told me that Indians 
had been at the poor women’s cabin in the night, and had given them 
shellfish to eat, that was a demonstration of reality beyond all suspicion. 
I went immediately to be informed from themselves, and they both 
avowed it for truth, showing the shells, the like whereof I never had 
seen; and this I took for proof of what they had said. The farther 
account that these women gave of the Indians, was, that they pointed to 
the south-east with their hands, which they knew not how to interpret; 
but imagined, by their several gestures, they would be with them again 
to-morrow. Their pointing to the south-east was like to be the time 
they w r ould come, meaning nine o’clock to be their hour, where the sun 
will be at that time. 

This news gave us all new life, almost working miracles among us, 
by making those who desponded, and totally yielded themselves up to 
the weight of despair, and lay down with an intent never to rise again, 
to take up their beds and walk. This friendly charitable visit of the 
Indians also put a stop to my preparations to seek them, who had so 
humanely prevented me, by their ways, seeking to preserve and save 
our lives. Instead of those preparations for my march, which had cost 
me so much pains, I passed my time now in contriving the fittest posture 
our present condition would allow us to put on, when these angels of 
light should appear again with the glad tidings of our relief; and the 
result was, that every able man should have his gun lying by his side, 
loaded with shot, and as fit for use as possible, but not to be handled 
ufiless the Indians came to us like enemies, which was very unlikely, 
the premises considered, and then to sell our lives at as dear a rate 
as we could. But if they came in an amicable posture, then would we 
meet them unarmed, cheerfully; which the Indians like, and hate to see 
a melancholy face. Scouts were sent out to the right and left hands, 
without discovery of anybody all the forenoon; and then, considering 
our case admitted no delay, I began to resume my former resolution ol 
swimming to them that would not come to us. But how wholesome 
soever this counsel might seem in itself, it was most difficult to be put 
in practice, in regard of the cold time. 

The northerly wind, that in these climates blows very cold in the 
heat of summer, much more distempers the air in the winter season, 
(as our poor comrades felt that Sunday night to their cost,) and sent 
so cold a gale upon the surface of water in the creek I was to pass, that, 
in the general opinion of all concerned, it was not a thing to be attempted, 
and that if I did, I must surely perish in the act. I was easily persuaded 
to forbear an action so dangerous; and the rather, because I verily 
believed the Indians would bring us off, if our patience would hold out. 

About the hour of two or three o’clock, it pleased God to change the 
face of our condition for the best; for while 1 was busy at the fire in 
preparations to wait on them, I discovered the Indians, who had placed 
themselves behind a very great tree; their faces wore most cheerful smiles; 
they were without any kind of arms, or appearances of evil design; the 


24 


PERILOUS VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN NORWOOD. 


whole number of them, perhaps twenty or thirty in all, consisting of men 
women, and children; all that could speak accosting us with joyful 
countenance, shaking hands with everyone they met. The words, “ny 
tap,” often repeated by them, made us believe they bore a friendly 
signification, as they were soon interpreted to signify, my friend. After 
many salutations, and u ny taps,” interchanged, the night approaching, 
we fell to parley with each other; but performed it in signs more con¬ 
founded and unintelligible than any other conversation I ever met withal; 
as hard to be interpreted as if they had expressed their thoughts in the 
Hebrew or Chaldean tongues. They did me the honor to make all 
applications to me, as being of largest dimensions, and equipped in a 
camlet coat, glittering with galoon lace of gold and silver. The ears 
of Indian corn they gave us for present sustenance, needed no other 
interpreter to let them know how much more acceptable it was to us 
than the sight of dead and living corpses, which raised great compassion 
in them, especially in the women, who are observed to be of a soft, tender 
nature. One of them made me a present of the leg of a swan, which I 
ate as privately as it was given me; and thought it so much the more 
excellent by how much it was larger than the greatest limb of any fowl I 
ever saw. 

The Indians stayed with us about two hours, and parted not without a 
new appointment to see us again the next day, and the hour we were to 
expect them, by their pointing to the sun, was to be at two o’clock in 
the afternoon. I made the chief of them presents of ribbon, and other 
slight trade which they loved, designing, by mutual endearment, to let 
them see it would gratify their interest, as well as their charity, to treat 
us well. Ha-na haw, was their parting word, which is, farewell; pointing 
again to the place where the sun would be at our next meeting. We 
took leave in their own words, Ha-na haw. The going away of the 
Indians and leaving us behind, was a separation hard to be borne by our 
hungry company, who, nevertheless, had received a competent quantity 
of corn, and bread to keep us till they returned to do better things for 
our relief. We did not fail to give glory to God for our approaching 
deliverance; and the joy we conceived in our minds, in the sense of so 
great a mercy, kept us awake all the night, and was a cordial to the sick 
and weak, to recover their health and strength. The delay of the 
Indians coming next day, beyond their set time, we thought an age of 
tedious years. At two o’clock we had no news of them ; but, by attending 
their own time, with a little patience, we might see a considerable number 
of them, men, women, and children, all about our huts, with recruits of 
bread and corn to stop every mouth. Many of them desired beads, and 
little truck they use to deal in, as exchange for what they gave us, and 
we as freely gave them what we had brought on shore. But to such of 
us as gave them nothing, the Indians failed not, however, to give them 
bread for nothing. 

One old man of their company, who seemed, by the preference they 
gave him, to be the most considerable of their party, applied himself to 
me, by gestures and signs, to learn something, if possible, of our country, 
and occasions of the sad posture he saw us in, to the end that he might 
inform his master, the king of Kickotank, on whose territories we stood, 
and dispose him to succor us as we had need. I made return to him, in 
many vain words, and as many significant signs as himself had made to 
me, and neither of us one jot the wiser. The several nonplusses we 
both were at in striving to be better understood, afforded so little of 


A HOSPITABLE RECEPTION. 


25 

edification to either party, that our time was almost spent in vain. It 
came at last into my head, that I had long since read Mr. Smith’s Travels 
through those parts of America, and that the word Werowance, a word 
frequently pronounced by the old man, was, in ^English, the king. That 
word, spoken by me, with strong emphasis, together with the motions of 
my body, speaking my desires of going to him, was very pleasing to 
the old man ; who, thereupon, embraced me with more than common 
kindness, and by all demonstrations of satisfaction, showed that he 
understood my meaning. This one word was all the Indian I could 
speak, which, like a little armor well placed, contributed to the saving 
of our lives. In order to what was next to be done, he took me by the 
hand, and led me to the seaside, where I embarked with himself and 
one more Indian, in a canoe, that had brought him there; which the 
third man rowed over to that broken ground, where, not long before, we 
made discovery of a canoe newly laid there ; and, as they told us, was 
lodged there on purpose to be ready for our transport, at such time as 
they thought fit to fetch us off: and the reason of their taking me with 
them, was to help to launch this weighty embarkation, which was very 
heavy for its proportion; as being made of the body of an oak or pine, 
some twenty-two feet in length, hollowed like a pigs’ trough, which is 
the true description of a canoe. The manner of its being put into motion 
is very particular: the laborers, with long brooms, place their feet on 
the starboard and larboard sides of the boat, and with this fickle footing 
do they heave it forward. 

The canoes being fitted to take us in, and waft us to the main, I made 
a fair muster of the remnant we had to carry off; and found we wanted 
six of the number we brought on shore; viz. four men, and two women. 
Five of those six, we knew were dead; but missing one of our living 
women, we made the Indians understand the same; who as readily 
made us know that she was in their thoughts, and should be cared for, 
as soon as we were settled in our quarters. In passing the creek that 
was to lead us to an honest fisherman’s house, we entered a branch of it 
to the southward, that was the road way to it. The tide was going out, 
and the water very shoal; which gave occasion to any one that had a 
knife, to treat himself with oysters all the way. At the head of that 
branch, we were able, in a short time, to discover that haven of happiness, 
where our most courteous host, with a cheerful countenance, received 
and entertained us. Several fires were kindled out of hand, our arms and 
powder were laid up in safety, and divers earthen pipkins were put to 
boil, with such varieties as the season would afford. Everybody had 
something or other to defend and save them from the cold; and my obli¬ 
gation to him, by a peculiar care that he had of me, exceeded all the 
rest; I had one entire side of the fire, with a large platform to repose on, 
to myself, furs and deer-skins to cover my body and support my head, 
with a priority of respect and friendly usage; which, to my great trouble, 
I was not able to deserve at his hands, by any requital then in my power 
to return. 

I can never sufficiently applaud the humanity of this Indian; nor ex¬ 
press the high contentment that I enjoyed in this poor man’s cottage, 
which was made of nothing but mats and reeds, and bark of trees fixed to 
poles. It had a loveliness of symmetry in the air of it, so pleasing to the 
eye and refreshing to the mind, that neither the splendor of the Escurial, 
nor the glorious appearance of Versailles, were able to stand in compe¬ 
tition with it. We had a boiled swan for supper, which gave plentiful 


26 


PERILOUS VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN NORWOOD. 


repast to all our upper mess. Our bodies thus refreshed with meat and 
sleep, comforted with fires, and secured from all the changes and inclem 
encies of that sharp, piercing cold season, we thought the morning, 
though clad in sunshine, did not come too fast upon us. Breakfast was 
liberally provided, and soon set before us, our arms faithfully delivered 
up to my order for carriages; and thus, in readiness to set forward, we 
put ourgelves in a posture to proceed to the place where the king resided. 
The woman left behind at the island, had been well looked to, and was 
now brought off to the care of her comrade that came with us; neither 
of them in a condition to take a journey: but they were carefully attended 
and nourished in this poor man’s hous.e till such time as boats came to 
fetch them to Virginia; where they soon arrived in perfect health, and 
lived (one, or both of them,) to be well married, and to bear children, and 
to subsist in as plentiful a condition as they could wish. In beginning 
our journey through the woods, we had not advanced half a mile, till we 
heard a great noise of men’s voices directed to meet and stop our further 
passage. These were several Indians, sent by the king to order us 
back to our quarters. The good-natured king being informed of our 
bodily weakness, and inability to walk through the woods to his house 
on foot, (which might be about four miles distant from our setting out,) 
had a real tenderness for us, and sent canoes to carry us to the place 
nearest his house by the favor of another branch of the same creek: 
and to the end we might take no vain steps, as we were going to do, and 
exhaust our strength to no purpose, these Indians made this noise to stop 
us. We entered the canoes that were manned and lay ready to receive 
us. We had a pleasant passage m the shallow water, and ate oysters all 
the way: for although the breakfast we had newly made, might well 
excuse a longer abstinence than we were like to be put to, our arrear to 
our stomachs was so great, that all we swallowed was soon concocted 
and our appetite still fresh and craving more. 

Having passed this new course for some three English miles in 
another branch of the creek, our landing place was contrived to be near 
the house of the queen, then in waiting. She was a very plain lady to 
see, not young, nor yet ill-favored. Her complexion was of a red 
white, but the mq^sures of beauty in those parts where they are exposed 
to the scorching sun from their infancy, are not taken from red and white, 
but from colors that better lie upon their tawny skins. The beauty of 
this queen’s- mind, which is more permanent than that of color, was 
conspicuous in her charity and generosity to us poor starved weather¬ 
beaten creatures, who were the objects of it. A mat was spread without 
the house, upon the ground, furnished with pone, hominy, oysters, and 
other things. The queen made us sit down and eat, with gestures that 
showed more courtesy than majesty; but spoke as hearty welcome 
as could in silence be expected: and these were the graces that, in our 
opinion, transcended all other beauties in the world; and abundantly 
supplied all defects of outward appearances in the person and garb of the 
queen. 

When this collation of the queen’s was at an end, we took leave of 
her majesty, with all the shows of gratitude that silence knew how to 
utter. We were now within half an hour’s walk of the king’s mansion, 
which we soon discovered by the smoke, and saw it was made of the 
same stuff with the other houses from which we had newly parted, 
namely, of mat and reed. Locust posts sunk in the ground at corners 
and partitions, were the strength of the whole fabric. The roof was tied 


HOSPITALITY OF THE INDIAN CHIEF. 


27 

fast to the body with a knot of strong rushes that grow there, which sup¬ 
plied the place of nails and pins, mortices and tenants. The breadth of 
this place was about eighteen or twenty feet; the length about twenty 
yards. The only furniture was several platforms for lodging, each about 
two yards long and more; placed on both sides of the house, distant from 
each other about five feet; the space in the middle was the chimney, 
which had a hole in the roof over it, to receive as much of the smoke as 
would naturally repair to it: the rest we shared among us, which was 
the greatest part; and the sitters divided to each side, as our soldiers do 
in their corps de guarde. Fourteen great fires, thus situated, were burning 
all at once. The king’s apartment had a distinction from the rest; it 
was twice as long, and the bank he sat on was adorned with deer skins 
finely dressed, and the best furs of otter and beaver that the country 
produced. The fire assigned to us was suitable to our number; to which 
we were conducted, without intermixture of any Indians, but such as 
came to do us offices of friendship. There we were permitted to take 
our rest, until the king pleased to enter into communication with us. 
Previously to which he sent his daughter, a well-favored young girl of 
about ten or twelve years old, with a great wooden bowl full of hominy, 
which is the corn of that country, beaten and boiled to mash. She, 
in a most obliging manner, gave me the first taste of it; which 1 would 
have handed to my next neighbor after I had eaten; but the young 
princess interposed her hand, and taking the bowl out of mine, delivered 
it to the same party I aimed to give it, and to all the rest in order. 
Instead of a spoon there was a well shaped muscle-shell that accompanied 
the bowl. About three hours after this meal was ended, the king sent 
to have me come to him. He called me Ny a Mutt, which is to say, my 
brother; and compelled me to sit down on the same bank with himself, 
which I had reason to look upon as a mighty favor. After I had sat 
there about half an hour, and had taken notice of many earnest discourses 
and repartees betwixt the king and his crotemen, (so the Indians call the 
king’s council,) I could plainly discover, that the debate they held was 
concerning our adventure and coming there. To make it more clear, the 
king addressed himself to me, with many gestures of his body; his arms 
displayed in various postures, to explain what he had in his mind to utter 
for my better understanding. By all which motions I was not edified in 
the least, nor could imagine what return to make by voice, or sign, to 
satisfy the king’s demand, in anything that related to the present straits 
of our condition. In fine, I admired their patient sufferance of my dullness 
to comprehend what they meant, and showed myself to be troubled at 
it: which being preceived by the king, he turned all into mirth and 
jollity, and never left till he made me laugh with him, though I knew 
not why. 

I took that occasion to present the king with a sword and long shoulder 
belt, which he received very kindly; and, to witness his gracious accep¬ 
tance, he threw off his mach coat, or upper covering of skin, stood upright 
on his bank; and, with my aid, accoutered his naked body with his new 
harness, which had no other apparel to adorn it, beside a few skins 
about his loins to cover his nakedness. In this dress he seemed to be 
much delighted; but to me, he appeared a figure of such extraordinary 
shape, with sword and belt to set it off, that he needed no other art to 
stir me up to laughter and mirth, than the sight of his own proper person. 
Having made this short acquaintance with the king, I took leave, and 
returned to my comrades. Several Indians of the first rank followed me 


28 


PERILOUS VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN NORWOOD. 


to my quarters, and used their best endeavors to sift something from us, 
that might give them light into knowing what we were. They sought 
many ways to make their thoughts intelligible to us; but still we parted 
without knowing what to fix upon, or how to steer our course in advance 
of our way to Virginia. In this doubtful condition, we thought it reason¬ 
able to fall upon a speedy resolution what was next to be done on our 
parts, in order to the accomplishment of our voyage by land; which we 
hoped, by the divine aid, we might be able to effect, after a little more 
refreshment, by the plenty of victuals allowed us by the king; who was 
no less indulgent and careful to feed and caress us, than if we had been 
his children. Toward morning we were treated with a new regale, 
brought to us by the same fair hand again. It was a sort of spoon meat, 
in color and taste not unlike to almond milk, tempered and mixed with 
boiled rice. 

Major Morrison, who had been almost at death’s door, found himself 
abundantly refreshed and comforted with this delicacy. He wished the 
bowl had been a fathom deep; and would say, when his stomach called 
on him for fresh supplies, that if this princess royal would give him his 
fill of that food, he should soon recover his strength. Our bodies growing 
vigorous with this plenty, we took new courage, and resolved, as many 
as were able, to attempt the finding out of Virginia. We guessed the 
distance could not be great, and that it bore from us S. by W. to S, W. 
Our ignorance of latitude we were in, was some discouragement to us; 
but we were confident, from what the seamen discoursed, we were to the 
southward of the Menados, then a Dutch plantation, now New York: fair 
weather and full stomachs made us willing to be gone. To that end we 
laid out for a quantity of pone; and, for our surer conduct, we resolved 
to procure an Indian to be our pilot through the wilderness; for we were 
to expect many remoras in our way, by swamps and creeks, with which 
all those coasts abound. The king remarking our more than ordinary 
care, to procure more bread than amounted to our usual expense, gath¬ 
ered thence our designs to leave him, and shift for ourselves. To pre¬ 
vent the rashness and folly of such an attempt, he made use of all his 
silent rhetoric to put us out of conceit of such design ; and made us 
understand the peril and difficulty of it, by the many obstacles we must 
meet with. He showed us the danger we should expose ourselves unto, 
by rain and cold, swamps and darkness, unless we were conducted by 
other skill than we could pretend to. He pointed to his fires and shocks 
of corn, of which he had enough; and made it legible to us in his coun¬ 
tenance, that we were welcome to it. All the signs the king made upon 
this occasion, we were content to understand in the best sense; and 
taking for granted our sojourning there was renewed to another day, we 
retired to our quarters. 

About midnight following, the king sent to invite me to his fire. He 
placed me near him, as before; and, in the first place, showing me the 
quarters of a lean doe, newly brought in, he gave me a knife to cut what 
part of it I pleased ; and then pointing to the fire, I inferred I was left 
to my own discretion for the dressing of it. I could not readily tell how 
to show my skill in the cookery of it, with no better ingredients than 
appeared in sight; and so did no more but cut a collop, and cast it on 
the coals. His majesty laughed at my ignorance; and to instruct me 
better, he broached the collop on a long skewer, thrust the sharp end 
into the ground, (for there was no hearth but what nature made,) and 
turning sometimes one side, and sometimes the other, to the fire, it 


NORWOOD CONVERSES BY SIGNS. 


29 

became fit, in a short time, to be served up, had there been a dining-room 
of state, such as that excellent king deserved. I made tender of it first 
to the king, and then to his nobles, but all refused, and left it to me, who 
gave God and the king thanks for that grfeat meal. The rest of the doe 
was cut up in pieces, stewed in a pipkin, and then put into my hands to 
dispose of among my company. 

Before I parted, the king attacked me again, with reiterated attempts 
to be understood; and I thought by these three or four days’ conversation, 

L had the air of his expression much more clear and intelligible than at 
first. His chief drift, for the first essay, seemed to be a desire to know 
which way we were bound, whether north or south. He took up a stick, 
with which he made divers circles by the fireside; and then holding up 
his finger to procure my attention, he gave to every hole a name; and it 
was not hard to conceive, that the several holes were to supply the place 
of a sea chart, showing the situation of all the most noted Indian territories 
that lay to the southward of Kic'kotank. That circle that was most south¬ 
erly, he called Achomack, which though he pronounced with a different 
accent, I laid hold on that word with all the demonstrations of satisfaction 
I could express; giving him to understand, that was the place to which I 
had a desire to be conducted. 

The poor king was in a strange transport of joy to see me receive 
satisfaction; and forthwith caused a lusty young man to be called to 
him, to whom, by the earnestness of his motions, he seemed to give ample 
instructions to do something for our service; but what it was, we were 
not yet able to resolve. In two or three days’ time, seeing no effect of 
what he had so seriously said, we began again to despond; and there¬ 
fore resumed our former thoughts of putting ourselves in a posture 
to be gone; but the king seeing us thus ready at every turn to leave him, 
showed in his looks a more than ordinary resentment; still describing 
(as he could) the care he had taken for us, and the impossibility of 
accomplishing our ends by ourselves; and that we should surely faint in 
the way, and die without help, if we would not be ruled by him. He 
showed me again his stores of corn; and made such reiterated signs, by 
the cheerfulness of his countenance, that we should not want, while we 
had such a plenty, as made us lay aside all thoughts of stirring till he 
said the word. But as oft as he looked or pointed to the coast of Acho¬ 
mack, he would shake his head, with abundance of grimaces, in dislike 
of our design to go that way till he saw it good we should do so. I w r as 
abundantly convinced of our folly, in the resolution we were ready to 
take of going away, without better information of the distance from 
Achomack, and the way that led to it; and having so frank a welcome 
where we were, we resolved to stay till the king should approve of our 
departure; which he was not able to determine, till the messenger came 
back, that he had sent to Achomack; who, it now seemed more plainly, 
was dispatched upon my owning that place to be our home; though we 
knew it not from any cause we could rely upon, before we saw the 
effect. 

While we lived in this suspense, the king had a great mind to see our 
firearms, and to be acquainted with the use and nature of them. That 
which best pleased his eye, I presented to him, and showed him how 
to load and discharge it. The king’s eldest son, of about eighteen years 
of age, was hugely enamored with our guns, and looked so wistfully on 
me, when he saw what wonders they would do, that I could not forbear 
presenting him with a birding-piece. Some of our company, who knew 


30 


PERILOUS VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN NORWOOD. 


that by the laws of Virginia, it was criminal to furnish the- Indians with 
firearms, gave me a caution in this case: but I resolved for once to bor¬ 
row a point of that law. For though it might be of excellent use in 
general, yet as our condition was, I esteemed it a much greater crime to 
deny those Indians anything that was in our power, than the penalty of 
that law could amount to. Father and son abundantly gratified in this 
manner, the king thought himself largely requited for the cost we put 
him to in our entertainment. I taught his son to shoot at fowls, to charge 
his gun and clean it: insomuch, that in a few minutes, he went among 
the flocks of geese, and firing at random, he did execution on one of 
them to his great joy; and returned to his father with the game in his 
hand with such celerity, as if he had borrowed wings of the wind. 

About three o’clock this afternoon (January 24) the king was pleased, 
in great condescension, to favor me with a visit; a favor which I may, 
without vanity, assume to myself, and my better habit, from the many 
particular applications that he made to me, exclusive of the rest of the 
company. He thought I was too melancholy, (for the Indians, as has 
been observed, are great enemies to that temper,) and showed me by his 
cheerful looks, what humor he would have me put on. He came at 
this time, attended by his young daughter, who had done us the good 
offices before mentioned; and having first, by kind words and pleasant 
gestures, given us renewed assurance of hearty welcome, he singled me 
out, and pointed with his hand to a way he would have me take; bift 
whither, or to what end, I was at liberty to guess. Upon that he produced 
his little daughter, for my conductress to the place to which I should 
follow her, wherever she would lead me. The weather was excessively 
cold, with frost; and the wind blowing very fresh upon my face, it almost 
stopped my breath. The late condition I had been in, under a roof, with 
great fires and much smoke, conduced to make me more sensible of 
the cold air; but in less than half an hour, that pain was over. We were 
uow in sight of the house to which we were bound, and the lady of the 
place, who proved to be the mother of my conductress, was ready to re¬ 
ceive us, and to show me my apartment in the middle of her house which 
had the same accommodation to sit and rest upon, as before has been 
described in other instances. The lusty rousing fire prepared to warm 
me, would have been a most noble entertainment of itself; but attended, 
as it was quickly, with good food for the belly, made it to be that com¬ 
plete good cheer, I only aimed at. A wild turkey, boiled with oysters, 
was preparing for my supper, which, when it was ready, was served up 
in the same pot that boiled it. This queen was also of the same mold 
of her majesty, whom we first met at our landing-place. Somewhat 
ancient, in proportion to the king’s age, but so gentle and compassionate, 
as did very beautifully requite all defects of nature. She passed some 
hours at my fire, and was very desirous to know the occasion that brought 
us there, as her motion and the emphasis of her words showed; but I 
had small hopes to satisfy her curiosity therein, after so many vain attempts 
to inform the king in that matter. In fine, I grew sleepy, and about nine 
o’clock every one retired to their quarters, separated from each other by 
traverses of mat; which, beside their proper virtue, kept the ladies from 
any immodest attempts, as secure as if they had been bars of iron. 

As the day peeped in, I went out and felt the same cold as yesterday, 
with the same wind, N. W. I was not forward to quit a warm quarter, 
and a frank entertainment; but my young governess, who had her father’s 
orders for direction, knew better than myself what I was to do. She 


ARRIVAL OF FRIENDS FROM VIRGINIA. 


31 

put herself in a posture to lead the way back from whence we came, 
after a very good repast of stewed muscles, together with a very hearty 
welcome, plainly appearing in the queen’s looks. My nimble pilot led 
me away with great swiftness, and it was necessary so to do; the weather 
still continuing in that violent sharpness, nothing but a violent motion 
could make our limbs useful. No sooner had I set my foot in the king’s 
house to visit my comrades, but a wonderful surprise appeared to me in 
the change of every countenance; and, as every face did plainly speak 
a general satisfaction, so did they with one voice explain the cause thereof, 
in telling me, the messengers of our delivery were arrived, and now 
with the king. I hastened to see those angels, and addressing myself to 
one of them in English habit, asked him the occasion of his coming there ? 
He told me his business was to trade for furs, and no more ; but as soon 
as I had told him my name, and the accidents of our being there, he 
acknowledged he came under the guidance of the Kickotank Indian 
(which I imagined, but was not sure the king had sent,) in quest of me 
and those that were left on shore. He had been sent by the governor 
of Virginia’s orders to inquire after us, but ,knew not where to find us 
till the Indian came to his house. He gave me a large account of the 
ship’s arrival, and the many dangers and difficulties she had encountered 
before she could come into James River; where she ran ashore, resolving 
there to lay her bones. His name was Jenkin Price: he had brought an 
Indian of his neighborhood with him, that was very well acquainted in 
those parts, for our conduct back to Achomack, which Indian was called 
Jack. 

The king was very glad of this happy success to us, and was impatient 
to learn something more of our history than hitherto he had been able to 
extract from signs and grimaces. Jenkin Price, with his broken Indian, 
could make shift to instruct Jack to say anything he pleased ; and Jack 
was the more capable to understand his meaning, by some sprinklings of 
English, that he had learnt at our plantations. Betwixt them both, they 
were able to satisfy the king in what he pleased to know. Jack told 
them, of himself, what a mighty nation we were in that country, and gave 
them caution, not to embezzle any goods we had brought with us, for 
fear of an after reckoning. I wondered, upon this serious discourse he 
had with the king, to see guns, and stockings, and whatever trifles we 
had given, offered to be returned; and being told the reason of it, by 
Jenkin Price, I was very much ashamed of Jack’s too great zeal in our 
service ; which, though it proceeded from a principle of honesty and 
good morality in him, we were to consider that our dearest lives, and all 
that we could enjoy in this world, were, next to divine Providence, owing 
to the virtue and charity of this king; and therefore, not only what they 
had in possession, but whatever else he should desire, that was in my 
power, would be too mean an acknowledgment for such high obligations. 
I took care to let them know that I had no hand in the menace by which 
Jack brought them to refund what they had got of us: the right under¬ 
standing whereof increased our good intelligence, and became a new 
endearment of affection between us. 

By better acquaintance with these, our deliverers, we learned that we 
were about fifty English miles from Virginia. That part of it where 
Jenkin governed, was called Littleton’s Plantation, and was the first 
English ground we expected to see. He gave me great encouragement 
to endure the length of the way, by assuring me, I should not find either 
stone or shrub to hurt my feet through my thin soled boots; for the whole 


32 


PERILOUS VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN NORWOOD. 


colony had neither stone or underwood. Having thus satisfied my curi¬ 
osity, in the knowledge of what Jenkin Price could communicate, wc 
deferred no longer to resolve how and when to begin our journey to 
Achomack. 

The Indian he brought with him (who afterwards lived and died my 
servant) was very expert, and a most incomparable guide in the woods 
we were to pass, being a native of these parts; so that he was as our 
sheet anchor in this our perigrination. The king was loth to let us go 
till the weather was better tempered for our bodies ; but when he saw 
we were fully resolved, and had pitched upon the next morning to begin 
our journey, he found himself much defeated in a purpose he had taken, 
to call together all the flower of his kingdom, to entertain us with a 
dance ; to the end that nothing might be omitted on his part for our 
divertisement, as well as our nourishment, which his territory could pro¬ 
duce. Most of our company would gladly have deferred our march a 
day longer, to see this masquerade: but I was wholly bent for Achomack, 
to which place I was to dance almost on my bare feet; the thoughts of 
which took off the edge I might otherwise have had to novelties of that 
kind. 

When the good old king saw we were fully determined to be gone the 
next day, he desired, as a pledge of my affection to him, that I would 
give him my camlet coat; which he vowed to wear, while he lived, for 
my sake. I shook hands, to show my willingness to please him, in that 
or in any other thing he would command; and was the more willing to 
do myself the honor of compliance in this particular, because he was 
the first king, I could call to mind, that had ever showed any inclination 
to wear my old clothes. To the young princess, that had so signally 
obliged me, I presented a piece of twopenny scarlet ribbon, and a French 
tweezer-case, that I had in my pocket, which made her skip for joy; and 
to show how little she fancied our way of carrying them concealed, she 
retired apart for some time, and, taking out every individual piece of 
which it was furnished, she tied a snip of ribbon to each, and came back 
with scissors, knives, and bodkins, hanging at her ears, neck and hair. 
The case itself was not excused, but bore a part in this new dress ; and, 
to the end we might not part, without leaving deep impressions of her 
beauty on our minds, she had prepared on her fore-fingers, a lick of paint 
on each ; the colors (to my best remembrance) green and yellow: which, 
at one motion, she discharged on her face; beginning upon her temple, 
and continuing it, in an oval line downwards, as far as it would hold out. 

Early next morning we put ourselves in a posture to be gone. Major 
Morrison was so far recovered, as to be heart-whole; but he wanted 
strength to go through so great a labor as this was likely to prove. We 
left him, with many others, to be brought in boats that the governor had 
ordered for their accommodation ; and with them, the two weak women, 
who were much recovered by the good care and nourishment they received 
in the poor fisherman’s house. 

Breakfast being done, and our pilot Jack ready to set out, we took a 
solemn leave of the good king. He inclosed me in his arms with kind 
embraces, not without expressions of sorrow to part, beyond the common 
rate of new acquaintances. I made Jack pump up his best compliments, 
which at present was all I was capable to return to the king’s kindness; 
and so, after many hana haes , we parted. We were not gone far, till 
the fatigue and tediousness of the journey discovered itself in the many 
creeks we were forced to head, and swamps to pass, (like Irish bogs,) 


ARRIVAL AT ACHOMACK. 


33 


which made the way at least double what it would have amounted to 
in a straight line: and it was our wonder to see our guide Jack lead on 
the way, with the same confidence of going right as if he had had a 
London road to keep him from straying. Toward evening we perceived 
smoke, an infallible sign of an Indian town, which Jack knew to arise 
from Gingo Teague. We went boldly into the king’s house, by advice 
of his brother of Kickotank, who was also a very humane prince. What 
the place and season produced, was set before us with all convenient 
speed ; which was enough to satisfy hunger, and to fit us for repose. 1 
was extremely tired with this tedious journey, and it was the more irksome 
to me, because I performed it in boots, my shoes being worn out, which 
at that time were commonly worn to walk in; so that I was much more 
sleepy than I had been hungry. The alliance I had newly made at 
Kickotank, did already stand me in some stead; for that it qualified me 
to a lodging apart and gave me a first taste of all we had to eat; though 
the variety was not so great as I had seen in other courts. 

I passed the night till almost day-break in one entire sleep; and when 
I did awake, not suddenly able to collect where I was, I found myself 
strangely confounded to see a damsel placed close to my side, of no 
meaner extract than the king’s eldest daughter; who had completely 
finished the rape of all the gold and silver buttons that adorned the king 
of Kickotank’s coat, yet on my back. When I was broad awake, and 
saw this was no enchantment, like those trances which knights-errant use 
to be in, but that I was really despoiled of what was not in my power to 
dispense withal; I called for Jack, and made him declare my resentment, 
and much dislike of the princess’s too great liberty upon so small an 
acquaintance ; which made me have a mean opinion of her. Jack showed 
more anger than myself, to see such usage by any of his country; and 
much more was he scandalized, that one of the blood-royal should purloin. 
But the king, upon notice of the fact, and party concerned in it, imme¬ 
diately caused the buttons to be found out and returned, with no slight 
reprimand to his daughter, and then all was well; and so much the better 
by the gift of such small presents as I was able to make to the king 
and princess. Breakfast was given us, and we hastened to proceed on 
our journey to Achomack. We reckoned ourselves about twenty-five 
miles distant from Jenkin’s house, and I resolved, by God’s help, that 
night to sleep there. But the distance proving yet greater than had 
been described, and my boots teazing me almost beyond all sufferance, 
I became desperate, and ready to sink and lie down. Jenkin lulled me 
on still with words that spurred me to the quick; and would demonstrate 
the little distance between us and his plantation, by the sight of hogs and 
cattle; of which species the Indians were not masters. I was fully 
convinced of what he said; but would, however, have consented to a motion 
of lying without doors on the ground, within two or three flights shot of 
the place, to save the labor of so small a remainder. 

The close of the evening, and a little more patience, through the 
infinite goodness of the Almighty, did put a happy period to our cross 
adventure. A large bed of sweet straw was spread ready in Jenkin’s 
house for our reception, upon which I hastened to extend and stretch 
my wearied limbs. And being thus brought into safe harbor by the 
many miracles of divine mercy, from all the storms and fatigues, perils 
and necessities to which we had been exposed by sea and land, for almost 
the space of four months; I cannot conclude this voyage in more proper 
terms, than the words that are the burthen of that Psalm of Providence, 
3 


34 


PERILOUS VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN NORWOOD. 


“ O that man would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness, and for 
his wondrous works unto the children of men!” 

Our landlord, Jenkin Price, and conductor Jack, took great care to 
provide meat for us; and there being a dairy, and hens, we could not want. 
As for our stomachs they were open at all hours to eat whatever was 
set before us; as soon as our wearied bodies were refreshed with sleep. 

It was on Saturday, the-day of January, that we ended this our 

wearisome pilgrimage, and entered into our king’s dominions at Achomack 
called by the English, Northampton County; which is the only county on 
that side of the bay, belonging to the colony of Virginia, and is the best 
of the whole for all sorts of necessaries for human life. 


t 



SEVEN YEARS 


OF A 


S A I L O R’S LIFE, 

AMONG THE 

SAVAGES OF THE CAROLINE ISLANDS. 


“In or about the year 1826, I shipped”—says O’Connell, an English 
sailor, in the story of his life—“at Sydney, New South Wales, in the bark 
John Bull, whaler, Capt. Barkus. After we had been from Sydney about 
four months, we put in at the Bay of Islands, New Zealand. Bishop 
Marsden, at that time on a visit to New Zealand, from his residence at 
Paramatta, put on board of us a missionary, who was appointed to Strong’s 
Island, one of the Caroline Archipelago, with his wife and daughter. 
We were to cruise among the islands toward Japan, with the inten¬ 
tion to reach the shores of Japan at a particular season, when whales 
. were supposed to frequent the sea of Japan. At eight months out, we 
had taken about eight hundred barrels of oil, and were endeavoring to 
make Strong’s Island, to leave our passengers. At nightfall, we had 
made no land, but knew from observation and the ship’s log, that we were 
within a days’ sail of our destination. We were bowling along under 
easy sail, the wind on our quarter, when, at about eight o’clock in 
the evening, the vessel struck on a concealed coral reef, which is not 
laid down on the charts. Capt. Barkus was, as usual, drunk on the 
hen-coop when the vessel struck. In the presence of the master, the 
mates can assume with success no authority which it is his peculiar pro¬ 
vince to exercise; consequently, with a drunken, stupid sot for a master, 
every one followed the promptings of his own experience or inclination. 
The boats were lowered; but notwithstanding the necessary precipitation 
with which we prepared to leave the vessel, the boat in which I escaped 
was furnished with provisions and arms, and we were able, also, to take 
away some ammunition, and little portable articles. In the boat with 
myself were five seamen, and the wife and daughter of the missionary. 
He was in the boat with the captain. In the four boats the whole crew 
escaped from the vessel. For five or six hours, we kept together; but, 
when the morning dawned there was only one of the other boats discer- 
nable, and that but faintly a long distance astern, as we crested a wave! 

The sufferings of the ladies engrossed more of our care than our own 
situation, We had a sail in our boat, and kept her away before it, both 
because of the comparative comfort of such a course, and our indifference 
as to what point we stood for. As I sat steering, I folded the shivering, 
sobbing daughter to my body with my left arm, while two of my shipmates 
assisted in protecting her by placing themselves on each side. The mo¬ 
ther was similarly cared for by the other seamen. We tendered them 
parts of our clothing, but could not persuade or induce them to accept 
anything of the kind. Oh, such a horrid night! The women had much 
more to endure than ourselves, for, beside the natural weakness of their 

(35) 



36 SEVEN YEARS OF A SAILOR’S LIFE. 

frames, and the delicacy which is woman’s suffering in misfortune, as her 
ornament in prosperity, they suffered acute pain from the excoriation 
they had received in descending to the boat by the davit-tackles: the 
salt-water rendered poignant the smarting pain of their wounds. But in 
all their affliction, they bore holy testimony to the efficacy of that religion 
whose messengers they were. If ever true practice, as well as profession 
of religion, existed, it was exemplified in this family. On shipboard, be¬ 
fore our misfortune, the discreet and feeling manner in which they strove 
to impress upon rude sailors the truths of religion, had convinced all of 
their sincerity , at least. In the boat we had more affecting proof. They 
prayed frequently and fervently, and there were none to scoff. 

Broiling heat succeeded the chills of night; the wind abated, and at 
noon we were becalmed—dying with heat and fatigue, upon a sea whose 
dead swell was so tranquil, that its glassy slimy smoothness was not ruf¬ 
fled. Toward night, we had a breeze again, through the night the wet 
chills, and the same heat and calm upon the next day. After two days’ 
and three nights’ exposure, the daughter died about ten o’clock on the 
third day. For some hours before, she had been apparently unconscious 
of her situation: she had talked in her wanderings of her father, of her 
home, and of the island to which she was destined on an errand of mer¬ 
cy: the happy end of her pilgrimage was attained without the toil to 
which she had in her youth devoted herself to reach it. The mother 
was, by suffering, so far bereft of sensibility, that the death of her child 
hardly moved her. She scarcely appeared to understand us when we 
informed her of it; or, if she did, the announcement was received with 
a sort of delirious joy. With as much attention to the forms of civilized 
society, as our situation would permit, we committed the body to the 
ocean. We at first intended to wrap the corpse in our sail; but the pru¬ 
dence of a portion of the crew, who objected to exposing the living to 
save a form for the dead, prevailed. The mother, in her weak state, 
hardly uttered a comment, and in a few hours followed her daughter. 
Her body was also consigned to the deep. 

Upon the next morning after these melancholy duties to the two mar¬ 
tyrs to religion, we made the land. We had been in the boat three days 
and four nights, but, rejoiced as we were to make the land, no immediate 
prospect of profiting by it appeared, for it was circled with a coral reef, 
in which it was past noon before we discovered an opening. Effecting 
a passage, We entered a smooth basin of water, and saw hundreds of 
canoes launching and putting off to us. They would approach within a 
short distance, then suddenly retreat, and at length commenced shower¬ 
ing stones, arrows, and other missiles upon us. We threw ourselves in 
the bottom of the boat, and when they had satisfied themselves that we 
could or would offer no resistance, they were emboldened to make a rush 
upon the boat, which they towed to the beech. After we were landed, 
they stripped us of our clothing, and took everything out of the boat, 
whale-irons, tubs, muskets, etc. The boat was then hauled upon the 
beach, and our company, six in number, were led to the canoe-house. 

We were seated in the center of the house, upon mats ; and yams, 
bread-fruit, plantains, bananas, fish, bits of cold game of some sort, were 
brought to us. The building was filled in every chink by natives, seated; 
the men with crossed legs, like Turks, and the women on their heels. 
A constant buzz of conversation ran through the assembly, each talking 
to his next neighbor, and gesticulating vehemently. The interjection, or 
sound, indicative of pleasure or surprise among the Indians, is a cluck, 


IS LIONIZED BY THE ISLANDERS. 


37 

and of this sound there was abundance, but we were at that time tyt a loss 
how to interpret it. Parties of two or three would come down to where 
we sat, walking with their bodies bent almost double. They took hold 
of our persons very familiarly, women and men, and gave frequent clucks 
of admiration at the blue veins which were marked through' our skins on 
parts of the bodies which had not been usually exposed to be bronzed 
by the sun. My comrades feared the Indians were cannibals, and that 
this examination was to discover whether we were in good roasting case: 
a horrible supposition, which was strengthened by the building of two or 
three wood fires, covered with small stones. Their fear was so exces¬ 
sive, that they gave themselves up as lost; but as I had been somewhat 
acquainted with the manners of the inhabitants of other islands, I rea¬ 
soned, from the apparent good humor of these people, that they intended 
us no harm. 

In a sort of desperate feeling of recklessness, I determined to try the 
experiment of dancing upon our savage audience. I proposed it to my 
comrades, and they endeavored to reason me out of what they esteemed 
criminal, thoughtless conduct, in the view of a horrid death. The pros¬ 
pect was none of the most agreeable, certainly; but I was determined 
on my experiment, despite their remonstrances. I accordingly sprung to 
my feet, and took an attitude ; a cluck of pleasure ran through the sava¬ 
ges, and one of them, readily understanding my intention, spread a mat 
for me. I struck into Garry Owen, and figured away in that famous jig, 
to the best of my ability and agility, and my new acquaintances were 
amazingly delighted thereat. There was no loud acclamation, but anxious 
peering and peeping over each other’s shoulders, the universal cluck 
sounding all over the house. Before my dance was finished, the cause 
for which the fires were built became apparent, to the no small relief of 
my comrades. It was ascertained that the roasting preparations were 
made, not for us, but for some quadrupeds, which we afterward found 
were dogs. Other preparations, such as the pounding of jago, roasting 
of game, etc., were making for a feast. In three or four hours all was 
ready. After my dance was concluded, we were separated from, each 
other, each of us making the nucleus of a group of natives, who could 
not sufficiently admire and examine him. Food was sent us, and jago. 
Of the latter I could not drink; it was unpleasant in taste, and a very 
strong narcotic in effect. 

We were now all completely reassured; the conduct of the natives 
to us was all that uncultivated kindness and hospitality could prompt. 
For three or four days it was with us a continual feast, islanders crowd¬ 
ing from all directions to see the white strangers. Upon the fourth day 
after our landing, there was an arrival of a fleet of canoes, the head and 
other chiefs. We were again inspected by the new-comers, and it was 
my fortune to be selected, with my shipmate, George Keenan, by the 
principal chief. The other four of my comrades were also appropriated ; 
and our property, and the articles we brought on shore in the boat, were 
also divided. 

On the morrow, my new friend, or master, or owner—I do not know 
exactly how he considered himself—left the island upon which we landed, 
taking with him Keenan and myself. Eight or nine hours carried us to 
his island, where new feasting and lionizing awaited us. A grand feast 
celebrated the return of the chief to his house, at which I repeated the 
Irish jig which had taken so well upon my first landing. I have no doubt 
that in my heels was found the attraction which led the chief to select 


38 


SEVEN YEARS OF A SAILOR’S LIFE. 


me from among my comrades. Upon the next day after his return, he 
restored to George and me our “ ditty bags,” the only property I had 
preserved from the wreck. In that bag, were two odd volumes of Jane 
Porter’s Scottish Chiefs, and a little shaving-glass. 

The shaving-glass did not survive long. While it lasted, I kept it sa¬ 
cred to the eyes of the island aristocracy, never permitting plebeian 
gazers access to it. I carried it with me on all my rounds of visits to the 
chiefs, and the exclamations of those who were favored with a peep at 
the magic glass, were amusing enough. As many as could look in at 
once, would peep over each other’s shoulders, twisting their features into 
the most grotesque expressions, and clucking with delight. They imag 
ined the reflection of their visages was caused by spirits behind the glass; 
consequently, some awe was mingled with their delight. It is, however, 
a curious fact for the student of mental philosophy, that their respect for 
those genii did not prevent their destroying the frame of the glass, one 
day in my absence, and scraping off the quicksilver, to detect the spirits 
in their hiding-place, and meet them all at once! 

We had been about three days at our new residence, when some of the 
natives began showing us their tattooed arms and legs, and making signs 
not entirely intelligible to us at first, though their meaning became after¬ 
ward too painfully marked. On the fourth or fifth day, George Keenan 
and myself were put on board of a canoe, with six natives. They pad- 
died a short distance along the shore of the island, and then turned into 
a creek, wide at the mouth, but soon narrowing till there was not room 
for two canoes abreast. At length we reached a hut on the banks of the 
creek, landed, and entered it, directed by our conductors, who remained 
outside. No person was there to receive us, and for half an hour George 
and I busied ourselves in guesses and speculation as to the end to which 
all this was tending. 

At length our suspense was relieved—ended, I should say—by the arri¬ 
val of five or six women bearing implements, the purpose of which we were 
soon taught. George was made to sit in one corner of the room, and I was 
seated in another, half the women with me, and the residue with my com¬ 
rade. One of my women produced a calabash of black liquid; another 
took my left hand, squeezing it in hers, so as to draw the flesh tight 
across the back. Then a little sliver of bamboo was dipped in the liquid 
and applied to my hand, upon which it left a straight black mark. The 
third beauty then produced a small flat piece of wood, with thorns pierced 
through one end. This she dipped in the black liquid, then rested the 
points of the thorns upon the mark on my hand, and, with a sudden blow 
from a stick, drove the thorns into my flesh. One needs must when the 
devil drives, so I summoned all my fortitude, set my teeth, and bore it 
like a martyr. Between every blow my beauty dipped her thorns in the 
ink. I was too much engaged in my own agreeable employment to watch 
my comrade, but George soon let me hear from him. He swore and 
raved without any attention to rule; the way he did it was profane, but 
not syntactical or rhetorical. He wished all sorts of bloody murder and 
plagues to light upon his tormentors, prayed that the islands might be 
earthquake-sunken, hoped forty boats’ crews, from a squadron of armed 
ships, would land and catch the blasted savages tormenting the king’s 
subjects. All this availed nothing but to amuse the women; and even I 
could not forbear a smile at his exclamations. The operators suspended 
this work to mimic him—mocked his spasmodic twitches of the arms and 
horrid gestures. He was a standing butt for it long afterward, and when 


/ 


HOW I WAS TATOOED. 39 

the natives wished to revile him, they would act the tattooing scene, ending 
with the exclamation, “ Narlic-a-Nutt mucha purk,”—Narlic-a-Nutt (his 
name) is a coward; “Jim Aroche ma coo mot,’ 1 —Jim Chief brave! 

After my executioner had battered my hand awhile, she wiped it with 
a sponge. I hoped she had finished; but no! She held my hand up, 
squinted at the lines, as a carpenter would true a board, then she com¬ 
menced again, jagging the thorns into places where she thought the mark 
was imperfect. The correction of the work was infinitely worse than the 
first infliction. In about an hour and a half the hand was finished, and 
the women left us, taking away their tools. Before they left us, however, 
they smeared the tattooed part with cocoa-nut oil, and then patted pulver¬ 
ized coal upon it. This was repeated often, till there was a thick crust 
of coal and oil, completely concealing the flesh. The healing properties 
of charcoal are familiar to chemists. The reader has noted, perhaps, 
that it will delay the putrefaction of butcher’s meat; and, indeed, some 
over economical housewifes know how to restore tainted meat by an ap¬ 
plication of it. The women gone, something was sent us to eat, and we 
flattered ourselves that our punishment for the day was over. However, 
the afternoon brought a fresh bevy of these tender ladies, who continued 
operations upon the left arm. At night we were pointed to some mats 
and informed that we must sleep there. 

On the next morning the gout-puffed hand of the canon of Gil Bias 
would not have been a circumstance in size to mine; though the color 
of my flesh, maturated, and grimed with charcoal, hardly looked so aristo¬ 
cratic as a delicately swelled, gouty limb. Another squad of these savage 
printers followed our breakfast. George was outrageous in his protesta 
tions, and howled and gesticulated earnestly against a repetition; and I 
did not spare entreaty. The prayer of his petition was granted, but my 
reluctance availed nothing. For a reason of which I then knew nothing, 
they made gestures that I must stand it—there was no escape. George 
was let oflf, but not without unequivocal expressions of disgust at his 
cowardice and effeminacy. He was indeed incapable of enduring it; his 
blood was bad; but physical disability, among all savages, is quite as much 
a disgrace as a misfortune. 

After finishing the left, operations were commenced upon my right arm. 
It is unnecessary to go into details; eight days were occupied in the 
process upon different parts of my body. My legs, back, and abdomen, 
were marked also, and to enable them to operate I was compelled to lay 
extended upon a mat. The hair upon my body was twitched out with sea- 
shells—a process which was performed as expeditiously upon my person 
as the same ground can be cleared of pin-feathers on geese by a dextrous 
cook. I often thought I should die of these apparently petty, but really 
actually painful inflictions. George was compelled to remain with me, 
not only during the eight days the tattooing was going on, but for the 
month afterward that I was obliged to remain at this hut for my flesh to 
heal. During this time the application of the oil and charcoal was con¬ 
tinually repeated, till I resembled in skin, if not in shape, the rhinoceros. 

I had supposed that my tattooing was over, but I had not been ashore 
three hours, before, by the chiefs direction, one of his daughters prepared 
to mark me still more. She tattooed a ring upon my right breast, another 
upon my left shoulder, and two about my right arm. This was but the 
prick of a needle to the extensive printing business which had been 
prosecuted upon my body at the tattoo-house, and I made no complaint. 
The feasting continued during the day; many dogs barked their last; 


40 


SEVEN YEARS OF A SAILOR’S LIFE. 


jago in abundance was mauled to express its juice; and my comrade 
for his fife, and. myself for my heels, were in excellent odor with the 
natives. I enjoyed this much better than my comrade; fell into the spirit 
of it, and danced like macLupon every visit from strangers; George sup¬ 
plying the music, and the spectators clucking, or breaking out into an 
unsurpressed laugh of delight. George’s music saved him much contumely, 
which he would otherwise have received for his cowardice in the tattoo- 
house. 

So wore the second day. It was not until night that I began to suspect 
to what it all tended. At night I learned that the young lady who im¬ 
printed the last mentioned marks upon my arm and breast was my wife! 
that last tattooing being part of the ceremony of marriage. Upon the 
third morning my bride led me away to the bath, and the day was spent 
in feasting and dancing, as upon the two days preceding; only that the 
third, being the climax, was more of a day of rejoicing than the two 
preceding. There was, however, no quarreling or disturbance, no uproar 
or disorder. The liquor expressed from jago is a tremendously powerful 
narcotic, and drinking it in large quantities produces deep and stupid sleep. 
George also was provided with a wife; but his unwillingness to submit 
to the process of tattooing wedded him to a woman of no rank. She how¬ 
ever, proved a good woman to him. My father-in-law was Ahoundel-a- 
Nutt, chief of the island of Nutt, and the most powerful chief on the group 
of islands inclosed by the reef, set down on the charts as one island, 
Ascension, but called by the natives Bonabee. He did not have the grace 
to give me a separate establishment however, for, during the whole time 
I remained upon the island, 1 resided under the same roof with him. He 
gave me his own name, Ahoundel, but I was oftener called Jem-aroche. 
George Keenan’s island name was Narlic. 

I never had more reason to complain of my wife than the majority of 
people in civilized countries have. She was only about fourteen years 
of age, affectionate, neat, faithful, and, barring too frequent indulgence 
in the flesh of baked dogs, which would give her breath something of a 
canine odor, she was a very agreeable consort. During my residence 
upon the island she presented me with two pretty little demi-savages, a 
little girl, and a boy, who stands a chance, in his turn, to succeed his 
grandfather in the government of the island. 

Although my father-in-law never permitted me a house distinct from 
his, but kept me as one of his own household, with a host of other con¬ 
nections—a knight of his majesty’s bedchamber—for there was no division 
wall in the hut, and I slept on a mat next him; my wife’s dower in canoes, 
Nigurts, (slaves,) and other Caroline personal property, with the improve¬ 
ment of real, was far from inconsiderable. She assumed a task new to 
her, and one of course which she could have had no idea of before—that 
of an instructress in the language. I was a tolerably apt scholar, but my 
teacher had a very critical ear, and the least deviation from the island 
pronunciation created vast merriment both for her and others present. 

My wife accompanied me in my walks and in my canoe excursions; 
always at my side, and looking up to me affectionately. Her father, who 
was a practical joker, contrived, in the excursions in which he accompanied 
us during the lengthened honeymoon, to pop upon places where he knew 
that, although my name and fame had preceded me, the residents had 
never seen me. He would direct me to enter a house suddenly, with a 
howl, and strike an attitude. It would invariably send all the occupants, 
usually women, flying out at every place of egress. The sight of Ahoundel 


PYRAMID OF BONES. 


41 

on the outside, enjoying a hearty laugh, would remove fear, and this 
rude method of introduction supplied both parties, the visitors and the 
visited, with rare amusement. Imagine the effect which would be pro¬ 
duced on a party of American or European ladies by the sudden appari¬ 
tion of an Albino under such circumstances, and you will have some idea 
of the fright of the islanders. 

To excursions without him Ahoundel was very averse. He would, in 
answer to my inquiries about the other islands, tell me they were inhabited 
by cannibals, and assure me, that if I ventured away from him I should 
certainly be eaten. George and I, if we took excursions, did so in a 
canoe borrowed of fishermen, because we could not launch our own un¬ 
perceived. Afraid of being eaten, our trips were at first confined altogether 
to Nutt, the island upon which we resided; circumnavigating it, and pad¬ 
dling up the creeks. When we were near a settlement, George would 
take his fife and make its shrill notes echo in the still valleys and moun¬ 
tains. “Narlic! Narlic! Narlic! Narlic!” we would soon hear the 
natives shouting, as they came running down to the creek side, “ Narlic, 
cudjong! cudjong!” Cudjong was the name which the natives had 
bestowed upon George’s fife. The shore would soon be lined with 
breathless listeners, and while I kept the canoe just in motion enough 
to avoid the banks, George would play some of his sweetest tunes. We 
were always invited to land, and usually did so. As soon as I left the 
boat came my turn; I was besieged to dance, and as I always refused to 
land except when intending to astonish the natives with a reel which might 
have passed for clever, even 

—“ at the fair of nate Clogheen,” 

I usually complied with their request. 

There is one species of fish universally held sacred by the islanders, 
a species of eel, inhabiting the fresh water. Keenan and myself had 
resided upon Nutt, and eaten at many feasts, beside the regular domestic 
fare, but in all this eating no eels had furnished their share. To our 
inquiries why this fish enjoyed such a peculiar and universal exemption, 
the only answer had been “ Major-howi!” This we knew was a partial 
defense for all fish, and not being aware that the respect for eels was 
more strenuously insisted upon than that shown their cousins, the dwellers 
in salt water, we determined upon indulging ourselves in a feast upon 
them; taking the precaution, however, not to invite any of our copper 
friends to be of the party. 

We selected for the occasion a fine night, and with elbowed sticks poked 
the fish out of the water at a sudden bend in a brook. Unlike the ells 
which were used to being skinned, these were not so much as used to 
being caught, and having enjoyed an immunity from the snares of the 
fisher, from time immemorial, our trouble was in avoiding to take too 
many, rather than in catching enough for our purpose. Building a fire 
and broiling them in an unoccupied house, we had a sit down alone, and 
demolished them with an appetite which was not abated by the circum¬ 
stances under which we feasted—the wise man having recorded his 
opinion that “stolen waters are sweet.” Our feast finished, we wiped 
our mouths, and returned to our island friends with all the conscious 
rectitude of rogues undiscovered. 

We had neglected the precaution of concealing the bones, and, with an 
aptitude for detecting sin like that which characterizes some civilized 
people, some of the natives recognized in the bones the fragments of the 


42 


SEVEN YEARS OF A SAILOR’S LIFE. 


forbidden fish. Our first intimation of the discovery was taken from seeing 
the natives repairing to the house, and, not at first understanding the 
reason of it, we fell in upon the tide. When we reached the hut, we 
found men, women and children, kneeling, or completely prostrate, beating 
their breasts, and rocking to and fro, or rolling on the floor. Of the noise 
they made, we had been, of course, apprised by our ears before we reached 
the house, and had concluded that some accident or sudden death was 
the reason of the outcry. Nothing was there however—no broken bones 
but the bones of the eels; the pyramid of which, as George and I had left 
it, might indeed have caused cries of surprise that two persons could have 
left such testimonials of appetite; but as the aspect of affairs looked like 
an expression of something more than surprise, we esteemed it prudent 
to keep our own counsel. For two or three days was the lamentation 
continued; it flew from place to place and from hut to hut; on every side 
was weeping and lamentation. George and I thought we saw some looks 
indicative of suspicion, and when the bones were fairly buried by the chieFs 
orders, and the hubbub ceased, we felt relieved from a load of fear which 
had been sufficient to give us a distaste for eels; which operated better 
for their safety, as far as we were concerned, than all the acts passed 
by the legislature of Massachusetts have done for the shad and alewives 
in Taunton River. 

Upon one occasion, when I was sick, a journey was projected, as was 
the usual course with invalids. I, however, refused to be cured in such 
a way, preferring ease and quiet. All the preparations having been made 
for the journey, it was taken without me. I thought my wife might have 
had the grace to remain at home with" her sick spouse, but she chose to 
accompany her father. Upon her return I had pretty well recovered, and 
I welcomed her by taking my wedding gift—a few blue beads—from her 
basket, and breaking them between two stones, before her eyes. As soon 
as 1 had done the mischief, Laowni ran from the house to a stone in the 
edge of the water, where she sat down and commenced crying like an 
infant. I followed, and endeavored to pacify her, but it was of no use. 
The only answer she made was to kick like a spoiled child. The tide 
flowed in, till she was in water to her elbows; then I was enabled to coax 
her away, but still she ceased not bellowing for her beads. If I had 
bitten off her finger, it would certainly have grieved her less. At night 
I went to sleep and left her weeping. She had refused to eat, though 
fish and the most delicate bits of a murdered puppy had been offered her. 
Happening, however, to awake at midnight, I detected her solacing her 
grief, not, like Mrs. Oakley, on boiled chickens, but like a delicate savage, 
on a dog’s drumstick. I said nothing, thinking the return of her appetite 
was a good omen; but when I waked again in the morning, clouds and 
darkness still sat upon the countenance of Laowni. 

The day long she wore the same sulks, giving me an occasional look 
of anything but affection, but not vouchsafing a word. At night I took 
George with me, and instead of sleeping in the canoe-house, which was 
then Ahoundel’s quarters, went to his house proper. There we built a 
small fire for its light, and just as we had propounded to each other the 
sage conclusion that his Majesty of Nutt and family were not in the best 
humor, we were surprised with a visit from that dignitary himself, accom¬ 
panied by a native who was particularly indebted to me for detecting 
him in stealing my knife, and two others, all armed with spears. Without 
saying a word they sat down at a little distance, biting their nether lips, 
as is always their custom when vexed or in a passion. 1 spoke to them. 


RIDING A HOBBY. 


43 

and inquired the reason of the visit, but received not a word in answer. 
George shivered beside me like a leaf, though I assured him he need 
fear nothing, as the visit was undoubtedly intended solely for me. At 
length our agreeable state of suspense was relieved by the appearance 
of Laowni, who. beckoned them outside, and we saw nothing more of 
them. It was two or three days afterward before the reconciliation be¬ 
tween myself and wife was completed, as I took it upon me, upon the most 
approved civilized plan, to become sulky when she relented. This lesson, 
however, taught me better than to trifle again seriously with the property 
or comfort of a wife, whose father might inflict summary punishment 
upon me without being amenable for it to any power. Such I afterward 
ascertained was the intention of the visit. Ahoundel left the canoe-house 
with a determination to put me to death, and it was the intercession of 
Laowni, who followed the party, that saved me. Upon the whole, the 
adventure had a good effect. Ahoundel respected the courage with which 
I faced him, though God knows it was as much in outward seeming as 
genuine; and respected the firmness which led me to maintain my ground, 
even after the threat of death. 

After I had some time resided with these savages, I happened acciden¬ 
tally to feel a sick man’s pulse. This was noted by the observant natives, 
and I was called upon to explain what it meant, and why I did it. I gave 
them the best illustration in my power, beating time to show them how 
fast the pulse should beat, and telling them that anything faster or anything 
slower was “no good.” The beating of the pulse at the wrists was a remark¬ 
able discovery to them; all the old women, and indeed all the young, 
made a dive at the wrists of every one when first suspected of ill health. - 
Once on the scent, they followed it, and detected the throbbing of the 
temples; so if there was not room enough at the wrists for all exami¬ 
ners, a portion would settle on his head. It was really amusing to see 
how like civilized people they could ride a hobby to death. Inquiries 
ceased. As phrenologists are said to read a man’s whole character 
without other data to proceed upon than the external developments upon his 
head, so the native professors of the new art of pulse-feeling wished only 
to find rest for the finger on the patient’s body. He or she would find 
rest only when the tormentors were asleep; the sleep of the patient being 
of too little consequence to interrupt the medical examinations of the 
thousand friends. 

An islander sick is an object ghastly enough. His original sallow face is 
smeared until it is resplendent in ghastliness. The accompanying objects, 
the gloomy visages of the attendants, and their howling and moaning, 
give such scenes a character gloomy as the most inveterate old lady 
lover of sorrow, rendered doubly sorrowful by exaggeration and anticipa- 
iton, could desire. If possible, I was always called to pronounce whether 
a patient would live or die; and, by caution in pronouncing judgment, 
and care in forming it, my word, as I gained experience, was considered, 
with the islanders, life or death to the patient. By a favorable opinion, 
confidently pronounced, I question not I saved many lives, as the natives 
would redouble their efforts when hope was encouraged, and the patient’s 
imagination, thus relieved, would assist the recovery. 

With these people, after George and I had become habituated to their 
customs, and learned to appreciate their character, we resigned ourselves 
to circumstances, and were content, in the absence of almost all hope 
of escape, to be happy. In about a year from our arrival, Ahoundel grew 
a little less cautious about our wandering; a forced remission of care, as 


SEVEN YEARS OF A SAILOR’S LIFE. 


44 

we had become too well acquainted with the people to believe them all 
cannibals. Still he insisted upon our being frequently in his company. 
The difficulty with Laowni, detailed in a preceding page, my father- 
in-law’s conduct, in which he was, I suspect, instigated by Namadow, left 
my situation not quite so pleasant as before. Ahoundel seemed inclined 
to repair his harshness with over affection, and it was with much difficulty 
George and I obtained permission to leave Nutt even for twenty-four 
hours. 

Outside the reef which bounds Bonabee, the island we were upon, are 
two other islands, one called by the natives Hand, about twenty miles 
distant; the other Pokeen, about sixty miles distant. The latter, called 
on the charts Wellington Island, is inhabited; Hand is not. The inhabi¬ 
tants of Wellington Island resemble those of Bonabee, except that they 
are addicted to cannibalism, a practice which is unknown on Bonabee, 
except, perhaps, so far as tasting an enemy’s heart goes. Keenan and 
myself visited it once, and found it bounded by a reef, through which 
there is but one passage. We were detained by a storm longer than we 
bargained for, being weather-bound ten days. Upon Wellington Island 
we remained nearly six months. 

I did not believe, till my visit, that the natives of Wellington Island 
were cannibals ; then I had ocular demonstration. It seemed with them 
an ungovernable passion, the victims being not only captives, but presents 
to the chiefs from parents, who appeared to esteem the acceptance of 
their children, for a purpose so horrid, an honor. Shortly after our return 
from Pokeen, or Wellington Island,our four comrades, Johnson, Brayford, 
Thompson and Williams, paid us a visit, as had been their occasional 
custom. At these meetings we sparred, danced, sung, and conversed in 
English, relating to each other our various experience and discoveries in 
the language of the people, and their character. 

Upon this occasion my comrades proposed to George and me that we 
should leave Nutt, and spend a twelvemonth with them, dividing the time 
with the different chiefs with whom they were quartered, and devoting 
the first month to an excursion from island to island. This proposal was 
eagerly embraced by us. I had frequently expressed to Ahoundel a wish 
to the same effect, giving as a reason my weariness of the monotony of an 
abode upon one island, but he uniformly refused his consent. My visit 
to Wellington Island was protracted, by the strength of the north-east 
trades, much beyond his pleasure, and, although I was an involuntary 
absentee, and of course not liable to blame, that long absence had so 
proved the need of my presence to him, that it made him averse to my 
going from his sight: a fatherly solicitude that was horribly annoying. 
Knowing, therefore, the certain answer to an application for leave of ab¬ 
sence, I determined to take liberty without. What I fancied a good 
opportunity soon offered. Ahoundel and his whole household, and con¬ 
nections, launched the canoes for an excursion or visit. I was excused 
from the party on account of the presence of my friends, who declined 
accompanying Ahoundel. When they were fairly off, we stepped into 
the canoe, but had hardly got under weigh, when a rascally native, who 
had evidently been watching us, shoved his canoe off, and prddled before 
us like lightning, shoving, or rather poling his canoe over the shallows, 
and working like a windmill in a gale with his single paddle in the deep 
water. When he reached a creek or inlet, into which we knew Ahoundel 
had turned, he shot up the opening, and we began to see his intention, 
and the meaning of the hoobooing he had kept up as he preceded us. 


THE ESCAPE AND PURSUIT. 


45 

in a few moments we saw the canoes of Ahoundel in pursuit. We used 
paddles and sail, and cracked on, esteeming it more a frolic than any¬ 
thing else. As we had the start, and the canoes of the island differ but 
little in speed, it was nearly two hours before they had neared us enough 
to be within hailing distance. They then commenced fair promises if we 
would stop, offering us fish, and bread-fruit, and yarns, and using all the 
logic of persuasion of which they were capable. Still we cracked on; 
but Ahoundel’s canoe at length shoved alongside of us, upon the weather 
or outrigger side, and we gave up the race as useless. My friend Nama- 
dow was the first to lay hold of the outrigger, and gave us the first intima¬ 
tion of their rough intentions, by endeavoring to capsize us. We hung to 
windward to trim the boat, and finding his strength ineffectual to upset it, 
he had the brazen impudence to climb on the platform with the intention 
to board us. In the heat of the moment I administered a settler wifh my 
fist, which knocked him into the water. Then half a dozen of the Indians 
laid hold of our outrigger at once, and esteeming it useless to struggle 
against such odds, we all jumped out of the canoe. Others of Ahoundel’s 
fleet had by this time gathered around us, and the Indians commenced 
beating us with the flat sides of the paddles whenever we showed our 
heads. Our canoe was smashed to smithereens, and my comrades were 
allowed to climb into others in the fleet, without much beating; indeed, 
they were assisted in; but I did not fare so well. Ahoundel made frequent 
feints with his spear, and so did others, but not one was thrown, nor 
had any person any such murderous intention; as I afterward learned 
their orders were to frighten and beat, but not to hurt: a consoling cir¬ 
cumstance, of which I had not then the benefit, but considered myself a 
case. During all this time my father-in-law was upbraiding me with my 
ingratitude, reminding me of my rank, connections, wife, and the benefits 
he heaped upon me. I protested my purpose was only to make an ex¬ 
cursion with the intention to return. The paddle pounding had ceased 
after the first rude attack, and this conversation was carried on, or rather 
his scolding, while I was eyeing the spears, and dodging, in anticipation 
of the expected blows. I made several attempts to climb into Ahoundel’s 
canoe, but my particular friend, who had by this time been fished out 
of the water, rapped my fingers with his paddle as soon as they clasped 
the gunwale. The fleet, which had received additions from Nutt, of 
people who came out from curiosity, seeing the fray, now turned toward 
Nutt again; and Jem Aroche, Moonjob as he was, was fain to crawl into 
the canoe of a native, and return to the house of his father. My ship¬ 
mates accompanied me, and Ahoundel, satisfied that I should not repeat 
my attempt to escape, proceeded on his excursion. I should have men¬ 
tioned, that no women accompanied our pursuers, as the precaution was 
taken to set them ashore before the boats started in pursuit. 

Three or four days passed before Ahoundel and his party returned. 
During that time I had ample opportunity for reflection, and came to the 
conclusion, that, considering the stealthy circumstances under which I 
left Nutt, the chief had reason for his jealousy of me. Nay, I could not 
help acknowledging to myself that my punishment was not altogether 
undeserved, as my treatment of my father had, to say the least, been 
unhandsome. When the party returned, Laowni immediately sought me 
upon landing, as she had heard vague rumors of my adventure, and was 
not sure that I was not killed. She was overjoyed to see me, rubbed her 
nose against mine, threw herself on my neck, and fairly wept tears of 
joy at my safety. Ahoundel himself made a sort of half apology, and 


SEVEN YEARS OF A SAILOR’S LIFE. 


46 

excused himself by recapitulating the suspicious circumstances against me 
Laovvni was clamorous in her complaints of my treatment, and even appealed 
to her father by asking him how he would like such usage if he was a 
stranger in London. 

Laowni questioned all the particulars of the attack out of me, and 
worked herself into such a rage with Nomadow, the friend who struck 
my hand, that she ran up to him, and struck him with her codjic, or 
small wooden knife. It was a severe blow, too, she dealt him, doing her 
savage notions of friendship more credit than her sex. He had no refuge 
but flight, and the others, who had been busiest in abusing me at the time of 
the encounter, noticing the reconciliation with Ahoundel, did not afterward 
venture into the canoe-house when I was present, till they imagined they 
had propitiated me with presents. Ahoundel was much better pleased 
with Laowni’s attack upon Nomadow than I was. He called her “ brave ” 
for it; not exactly to her face, but as any father among us would rather 
commend than regret the pranks of a spoiled child; for such was Laowni, 
his only daughter. Nomadow was so severely wounded by her, that his 
death, occurring within a couple of months, was attributed to the com¬ 
bined effects of his bodily injury and his shame at being punished by a 
woman. 

Our shipmates lengthened their visit some days after their capture ^ 
under the apparently suspicious circumstances of running away with 
George and me. Ahoundel had the justice to present them with a new 
canoe, the civility; to invite them to prolong their visit, and the delicacy 
to restore their property so soon after the explanation, that their visit could 
not seem a detention forced by the lack of means to escape. Not the 
least interesting among our occupations and amusements on the island 
was conversation with the natives, and watching the avidity with which 
they swallowed whatever we told them, and the dexterity with which they 
applied the information thus gained to the improvement of their arts; 
always excepting when it interfered with such part of their customs as 
were based on their religion. It was a practice with us to impress their 
minds with an idea of the power of the chiefs of England and America. 
We told them of musketry and of cannons, but never, with the guns in 
our hands, c&uld convince them that those guns were the death-dealing 
engines, of which, from tradition, they had some idea. Our powder was 
all spoiled in the boat, before we landed. 

In illustrating geography to my adult scholars, I drew, upon bark, a 
rough skeleton outline of America, large, a small spot for England, and 
to show them the comparative size of their own islands, a small dot. This, 
however, would not suffice to make them understand, till they inquired 
how many day’s journey it required to go round America and England. 
To the first I assigned an indefinite time, very, very long—too many days 
to be counted. My inquirers would cluck, cluck, in astonishment. 
England (not to let her appear too insignificant) I bounded by a year’s 
traveling, the name England comprising the three kingdoms. They would 
then revert to their own speck in the ocean, almost incredulous to the 
statement that other inhabited spots so much exceeded it in size. 

Some months after this, we were informed that Wajai-a-Hoo, the chief 
of a neighboring island, had declared war against Ahoundel-a-Nutt, on 
account of my marriage. It appeared that Laowni was promised to him 
previous to my arrival. The daughter never much affected the match, 
as Wajai was old, and the husband already of something like a dozen. 

It may be to her disgust for that union, quite as much as to my own good 


ISLAND WARFARE. 


47 

looks, that I owed my marriage to her. Be that as it may, Ahoundel, 
after stating the case, asked me if I was willing to fight; and as I saw no 
honorable mode of escape, and am a native of a country whose boys have 
no very decided aversion to a bit of a row, I consented; but George 
showed the white feather, and positively refused. 

Preparations were immediately set on foot to visit him, and 66 carry the 
war into Africa,” by answering Wajai’s challenge at his own door. 
Natives to the number of about fifteen hundred were mustered, from Nutt 
and two contiguous small islands, called Hand and Param. Each canoe 
was furnished with smooth stones, which were stowed in the bottom, and 
each native was furnished with a sling, a spear, a bow and arrows, and 
war-club. The spears are from five feet to eight in length, and barbed 
with the back bone of a fish, preserving five or six joints, with the pro¬ 
truding bones, like arrow barbs. The clubs are made of heavy wood and 
notched, about eighteen inches or two feet in length. The natives were 
dressed in their best savage articles of adornment, their heads dressed 
with flowers, but no paint was put upon their flesh, except the everlasting 
smearing with cocoanut oil and curry. 

The day and place had been appointed with all the circumstance of a 
duel, or rather of an ancient joust at arms, with the exception that there 
was no stipulation or limitation as to force on either side; each party 
bringing all the strength he could muster. Treachery sometimes occurs 
in island warfare, and attacks by surprise are made; seldom, it is true, 
but often enough to induce those who are aware that they have enemies 
to be on their guard. This engagement with Wajai was, however, a fair 
fight, preceded by a challenge and its acceptance, and of course Wajai 
was prepared to receive us, though with an inferior force. 

His canoes were ranged in the water, in front of his settlement, and as 
soon as we were near enough to distinguish features, our chief, Ahoundel, 
and Wajai sprung simultaneously to their feet, upon the platforms of their 
canoes, and flourishing their spears, set up a shout of defiance, the conches 
blowing an accompaniment. The inferior chiefs upon both sides then 
rose and joined in the cry, and the engagement commenced with hurling 
the stones with slings. The stones are seldom less than a pound in 
weight, and are thrown with tremendous precision, the parties being from 
thirty to forty yards apart. Several canoes were broken and sunk on both 
sides, and many men killed. The stones exhausted, arrows and spears 
followed; the parties nearing each other, till the battle was canoe to canoe, 
and hand to hand. The natives would seize each other by the hair, and 
thrust with a small wooden spear or lance, without barbs, and cut the flesh 
with sharp shells. In the onset Wajai was killed by one of the party in our 
canoe. A shout of joy on one side, and a murmur of grief on the other, 
suspended the battle a moment; but it was soon renewed with unabated 
fierceness. At length we forced a landing, and the vanquished or broken 
foe, failing to prevent it, also sprung on shore, and disputed every inch 
of ground, to the very doors of their houses. The land engagement was 
fought with the jagged spears and the short war-clubs. It may be neces¬ 
sary here to state that direct thrusts are seldom made with these spears; 
they are generally used for striking, and inflict mangling wounds in the 
flesh. The clubs which are worn in the belt, like a North American 
Indian’s tomahawk, are the last resort, but are never hurled. 

An hour and a half of hard fighting brought us to the estate of Wajai. 
The women had long before deserted the houses, taking with them such 
of their effects as they could conveniently transport, and the men, fairly 


48 


SEVEN YEARS OF A SAILOR’S LIFE. 


overpowered, fled to the interior. No attempt had been made l > take 
prisoners on either side, and the fugitives were not pursued. The natives 
of Bonabee, never slaughter in cold blood after a foe ceases to resist. 
Our party plundered the houses of whatever movables were left, set 
tire to them, and, returning to the beach, broke up the canoes of the foe, 
and taking with us the spears, mats, and other plunder, we returned to 
Nutt. We brought back such of our own dead as we could find, and the 
body of Wajai and other chiefs, who fell upon the other side. 

For the credit of a people whose character is generally humane, for 
uncultivated savages, I should rejoice to stop here; but the truth compels 
me to speak of a custom differing so entirely from their usual character, 
that I am at a loss to account for it. Upon the next day after our return 
there w£ls a feast held. The usual preparations of jago and dog venison 
Were made, and the bodies of Wajai and his chiefs were burned; but 
previously to the entire consumption of the bodies by fire, the heart of 
Wajai was taken out, and presented to the chiefs on a large plantain leaf 
Whether it was eaten, or even tasted, I cannot say, as I was not present at 
the disgusting ceremony. The presumption, however, is, the eating the 
hearts of the chiefs killed in war is a custom with them. Of this I can 
speak only so far as I have spoken, having had but one opportunity for 
ascertaining. No other part of the body than the heart was eaten, find that 
rather as a ceremony than a gratification. 

It was in the early part of the month of November, 1833, that I discov¬ 
ered a vessel from Nutt; the first vessel that I am positive of having seen 
while on the island of Bonabee. My comrades often said they saw vessels, 
and 1 frequently imagined that I did, but none approached near enough 
for us to distinguish their class. It was about sunrise in the morning 
when I first discovered her, and I called up George immediately. We ran 
to the top of the nearest hill, and anxiously watched her, as well as the 
mist and occasional rain would permit, for it was a dull morning. After 
we had satisfied ourselves that it was a European or American vessel, we 
ran down to the chief and informed him that there was a vessel in the 
offing, and that we wished to board her. He was not half so much elated 
at receiving the information as we were in imparting it. He eyed me 
some moments. “What!” said he, V a ship? No, no.” I repeated my 
assurance, and led him to the hill. My wife and the whole household 
followed. Gedrge and I bounded about for joy, skipping up the hill, as 
if our feet could not serve us fast enough. The pace of our companions 
offered something of a contrast; they were still incredulous, and my wife 
and father were evidently hoping against the truth of my discovery, as 
they saw in my joy anything but a pleasant indication of my feelings 
respecting remaining upon the island. I pointed out the vessel, and satis¬ 
fied them that it was not, as they supposed, and hoped it might be, a native 
war-canoe. I repeated my request for a canoe, assuring Ahoundel that 
I would make the vessel “ moondie” literally, “sit down ,” or come to an 
anchor. At the canoe-house, whither Ahoundel, Laowni, my children, 
and others, followed me, Ahoundel granted his unwilling consent that 1 
should go off to the vessel, following it up with questions, while Laowni 
anxiously watched the expression of my face for an answer. “ Do you 
love your wife? your children? I)o you love them much, very much? 
Will you certainly return?” To all this I answered yes, yes; and my heart 
smites me now, as I recollect the gratified expression of my wife’s coun¬ 
tenance upon receiving the assurance. A large canoe was prepared to 
launch, but the tide was out. We were obliged to wait for it two full 





































! 

















































\ 

















THE SPY, OF SALEM. 


49 

hours! Oh the impatience we felt! the snail-like progress of time! 
Knowing perfectly well, had we been cool, the time of the tide, still we 
could not avoid running down every ten minutes to look. Meanwhile I 
prepared a quantity of tortoise shell, yams, bread-fruit and cocoanuts, to 
take off to the captain. We watched the vessel—she tacked and stood 
off—our hopes fell—she stood back again—we were reassured—she hove 
to, and we were happy, till we recollected we were tide-bound. 

At length the tide served us to launch the canoe. Ahoundel and 
Laowni accompanied me to the boat, the former reminding me of my 
promise to bring him trinkets, the latter melancholy, and half doubting 
that she should see me again. There was a fleet of some dozen canoes 
beside mine. I was accompanied by Keenan, a young chief, and two 
natives. We went outside the reef, and had neared the vessel so that we 
could distinguish the men on her decks, when the native who had the 
steering oar let the canoe get into the trough of the sea. There was a 
tremendous sea on, and it was carelessness on my part, to let the paddle 
go from my hand; the consequence of getting the canoe broadside on to 
the sea was, that we were swamped. As is usual with the natives, we 
all jumped overboard, two taking the outrigger side and the others striving 
to bail out the canoe. There was, however, too much sea running, and 
all endeavors to bail the boat proved futile, while the tide and the swell 
were drifting us toward the reef. The young chief, who was quite a lad, 
made no ado, but cutting away the twine fastenings with his fish-shell 
knife, stripped the board off the outrigger, laid his breast across it, and 
paddled away like a dog, for the reef. Seeing no alternative, I disengaged 
the pole which formed the fore-and-aft part of the outrigger, and, with 
one of the natives, made also for the reef, with the pole beneath our breasts. 
As we reached the crests of the waves I could see the vessel, and the 
other more fortunate canoes every moment getting nearer to her. The 
very dress of the men on the vessel’s deck was distinguishable. And 
here, in the very sight of the first white men, except our shipmates, that 
we had seen for years, George and I were apparently devoted to death, 
before we could exchange a word with them. I should have mentioned, 
that before leaving the canoe I fastened my mat to the mast and waved it, 
but the vessel’s crew, imagining us natives, paid no attention to the signal. 
George, with one of the natives, remained with the canoe, contrary to my 
advice, as he insisted that a native of the island must know better how to 
conduct in an emergency like this than I could. In a few moments I 
heard him hailing, beseeching me for God’s sake to wait for him to 
overtake me. The native who was my companion objected, and for a 
moment I listened to the Indian and paid no attention to the cries of my 
friend. My better feelings, however, prevailed, and I waited for my ship¬ 
mate, who reached us panting with exertion, and seized the outrigger just 
as he was nearly exhausted. I had trembled for him, but it was impos¬ 
sible to turn back and face tide and surf. One moment and I caught a 
glimpse of his head on the top of a wave, the next he was invisible. My 
joy at the relief from suspense which his arrival gave was second only to 
his at reaching us. 

We had by this time reached the surf. Taught by former experience, 
I watched the rollers, and when I saw one coming let go of the outrigger, 
faced the sea, and clasped my hands over my head. Down it came upon 
us, but my hands and arms broke the force of the water, and I was driven 
down, but emerged again, many feet nearer the reef. My companions, 
George and the native, followed my direction and example, and we rose 
4 


SEVEN YEARS OF A SAILOR’S LIFE. 


50 

nearly together. The outrigger was thrown upon the ledge at the second 
or third roll, and had we clung to it we should have been dashed to pieces 
among the rocks, by the force with which we should have been driven. 
The young chief had reached the ledge before us, and between our forced 
plunges we could see him encouraging us by swinging his mat. After 
being thus swamped five or six times we reached the rocks, more dead 
than alive, and crawled where the water had least force. Here, taking 
the pole of the outrigger, which, as before stated, had preceded us, I 
attached my mat to it, and made signals of distress. On board the schooner 
they paid no heed to it, although she stood at one time almost within hail 
of us. Taking us for natives, and supposing us used to such mishaps, 
her master thought we could manage for ourselves; had he, however, 
been inclined to assist us, no boat would have lived in the surf. We were 
two or three hours on the reef before we were discovered by the natives; 
then some fishing canoes came to us from the inside, where the sea was 
comparatively nothing, and the reef approachable, and took us off. One 
of the party, the native who remained with the canoe, was drowned, his 
body being picked up a day or two afterward among the rocks which 
formed the reef. 

Upon reaching Nutt, Ahoundel was astonished with the story of our 
escape. The young chief described our conduct to him, and his astonish¬ 
ment was increased, that two white men should prove better or more 
fortunate swimmers than a native fisherman. We were weakened, and 
bruised, and sore, as the reader will readily conceive ; but our bodily 
suffering was forgotten in our mental anxiety, as the last light of day 
showed us the schooner standing off shore. Would she return? The 
night long we passed in anxious doubt, and were out with the dawn to 
look for the sail. At length I saw her, just a speck. Heavens! how my 
heart leaped! A half hour more and the tide was right. The vessel, 
standing in, was now fairly visible, and, prepared with a fresh load of 
tortoise shell and provisions, with George and two natives for companions, 
I set sail again. As we went out by the reef, we were forcibly reminded 
of our escape of the preceding day, by a fleet of canoes which were 
paddling as near the reef as they dared, in search of the body of the 
drowned man. When we reached the schooner she was hove to, with 
her boarding nettings up, and her men mustered, with boarding pikes and 
muskets in hand, or at hand. Two or three other canoes got along side 
at the same time that we did, and others were coming off. Upon the 
day before no natives had been allowed to board the vessel, though a 
barter traffic for yams and bread-fruit was opened between the canoes and 
those on board the vessel. We passed under her stern, and I read the 
name, “ Spy, of Salem.” She was brig rigged forward, and schooner aft. 
Passing round to her weather bow, I sung out, “ Shipmates, throw us a 
rope’s end, will you ?” There was a bustle on deck, a buzz of surprise, 
but no answer, and in a moment I heard somebody exclaiming, “Captain, 
the natives on this island speak English!” The anxiety to get a peep at 
us through the boarding netting was now redoubled, forward and aft. 
One of the men, after much hesitation, threw us a rope, and the captain 
came to the gangway and asked us on board, requesting us to keep the 
natives in the canoe, which we did. The captain did us the honor to 
ship the side-ladder for us, and George and I needed no second invitation 
to come on deck, but, taking up the tortoise shell with us, directed the 
natives to pass up the yams. To my first question the captain answered 
that the name of the island was Ascension, the group being laid down 


THE SPY FIRES UPON THE NATIVES. 


51 

as one island on the chart. He inquired particularly into our story, and 
proceeded, while he did so, to offer us, with a sailor’s hospitality, a rum¬ 
mer of grog. It was the first I had tasted for years, of course, and a bare 
swallow of it burned my throat, flushed my face, and played the deuce 
with my head altogether. Poor George was even worse flabbergusted 
than I was. 

In answer to Captain Knight’s inquiries, I assured him of the peaceable 
character of the islanders, and that there was abundance of tortoise shell 
and beche le mer for commerce, and yams, bread-fruit, water, and wood, 
for provision upon the islands. In a short time Captain Knight expressed 
a willingness that I should permit my natives, to come on board, and we 
dropped the canoe astern. Other natives were not so fortunate; they 
huddled about the vessel, and, coveting iron, strove to pull out the iron 
work under the chains with their hands. The schooner filled away again, 
and we stood oft' with a fleet of canoes in tow, dashing and plashing 
through the water, their outriggers foul of each other, and getting contin¬ 
ually carried away. I dined on board, with George, at the cabin table. 
The condiments of my own furnishing, with the salt provisions, ship bread, 
and butter, of the ship’s stores, furnished a more savory meal than I had 
sat down to for many a day. I undertook to pilot the Spy inside the reef 
to an anchorage, at Captain Knight’s request. At four or five o’clock in the 
evening she came to an anchor in the harbor of Matalaleme. By the 
natives who went that night to Nutt, I sent Ahoundel a large broadax 
and an adz, and to Laowni I sent beads, red kerchiefs, and other trinkets; 
while George and I remained on board, afraid to trust ourselves on shore 
again. 

In the morning the vessel was again surrounded by canoes, and Captain 
Knight purchased of the natives, through me as an interpreter, tortoise 
shell and other articles, and one canoe, which he purposed to carry away 
as a curiosity. This was dropped astern and fastened by a rope to the 
counter. In about two hours from the time of purchasing some of the 
natives slipped into it, and before we were aware were making off' with it, 
induced probably by some island superstition. Captain Knight immedi¬ 
ately fired upon the thieves, and, lowering a boat, sent some men in 
pursuit; but it would have been impossible to have overtaken them, even 
if the water had not been too shallow in places for the keel of the boat. 
Captain Knight now began to fear that the natives intended to take his 
vessel, although George and I assured him to the contrary, and told him 
that their worst fault was an irresistible propensity to thieve, where they 
saw articles they so earnestly coveted. We represented to him that harsh 
treatment might bring about the very event he dreaded, and that, at any 
rate, the next vessel which came within their reach would suffer for his 
conduct. Still he was nervous, agitated, and acted like one beside him¬ 
self, begging me to prevent treachery and keep the natives quiet. In¬ 
stead of acting like a discreet person, which had he done, he might have 
lain at Matalaleme weeks, with profit, he blowed out the brains of a native 
who was climbing in at the cabin windows, and threw out the body. 
Luckily for Captain Knight, the murdered man was a common man, so 
that the dissatisfaction of the natives amounted only to a murmur; had he 
been a chief, the capture of the vessel and murder of the crew would have 
atoned for his death. It did not seem long to intimidate them, but after 
they had clamorously inquired of me the cause of his death, and I told 
them it was for thieving, they seemed, in a measure, satisfied that it was 
just. During the time that the Spy lay at Matalaleme no natives were 


52 


SEVEN YEARS OF A SAILOR’S LIFE. 


permitted to come upon her deck, but stood in the chains, and in their 
canoes. No chiefs of note came off to the vessel at all—a precaution 
adopted by their friends, I presume, and in accordance with the habits 
and policy of the people; else so simultaneous a measure could not have 
been carried out by all the islands. In a short time after the native was 
shot in the cabin, a small swivel was hoisted into the foretop, charged 
with nails, slugs, and musket balls. Every fresh arrival of canoes put 
Captain Knight in additional perturbation; he had commenced hostilities, 
and even I began to have fear for the consequences. Constant persuasion, 
and even the exercise of authority, was necessary on my part, to prevent 
a rush upon the vessel, by the natives. At about ten in the morning the 
Spy got under way, and Captain Knight ordered his crew to fire upon the 
natives, and even wished Keenan and myself to take arms against people 
who had for five years been our friends and protectors. We flatly refused. 
The musket shots were answered by occasional stones hurled from the 
canoes, none of which took effect, save one, which struck the mate; but 
from being spent, or some other cause, it injured him but slightly. During 
all the time the number of the canoes about us rather increased than 
diminished, and I was in continual conversation and parley with the natives. 
They complained of the treatment of the Aroche tic-a-tic (petty chief) 
of the vessel. I answered that I was not to blame for it, and appealed to 
them for the fact that I had not taken up arms against them. I was anxious 
that a good report of my conduct should be carried back to Ahoundel. 

As we beat out—for the wind was against us—fleet after fleet of the 
canoes, nothing daunted by the death of the few natives who had fallen, 
put off for us, from various parts of the group. The echo of a musket 
report in the harbor of Matalaleme, was of itself startling. It rang from 
rock to rock, and from hill to hill, probably for the first lime; that genera¬ 
tion of the islanders, at any rate, knew nothing of the use or character 
of firearms. Captain Knight’s perplexity was doubled by his want of 
that knowledge of the harbor which was necessary to safe conduct of 
his vessel. 

The sight of a fresh fleet putting off toward us made Captain Knight 
desperate. He sent a hand with a match into the foretop, clewed up 
the sail, and sent the charge of the swivel among the thickest of the fleet. 
I saw several natives drop like dogs over the sides of their canoes. There 
rose a howl of mingled rage and defiance among the survivors; but the 
cruel expedient answered the purpose—the natives fell back, and though 
they followed us far outside the reef, it was at a great distance. In the 
passage through the reef we narrowly escaped getting on the rocks. Had 
the vessel been wrecked, the lives of all on board would have answered 
the death of the natives. The crew of the next American or English 
vessel which touches at the island of Ascension will probably be sacrificed 
in revenge, should they fall, by any inadvertence, into the power of the 
islanders. 

The shot from the foretop was not repeated. The mast was strained, and 
the sailor who officiated as gunner came down the backstays by the run, 
protesting he would not again fire the swivel. Nothing which occurred 
during my connection with the islands affected me so unpleasantly 
as the butchery of my triends by Captain Knight. Knowing perfectly 
the language and character of the people, I knew that, until they were 
roused to revenge by the death of the native, no thought of farther mischief 
than theft was entertained by them. This might easily have been guarded 
against by mild means; at any rate, the course taken did not answer. 


VILLAINY OF CAPTAIN KNIGHT. 


53 

I proposed to Captain Knight, as we entered the harbor, that the vessel 
should lay there a month or six weeks, informing him of the quantities 
of beche le mer which I proposed to cure for him, taking the requisite 
tools from the vessel. I did not expect that anything but peace and good 
fellowship between the natives and the crew of the vessel would grow out 
of the visit; but the hasty and cruel conduct of Captain Knight marred it 
all. I was grieved at the death of the the natives; but I was astonished 
at the effrontery with which Captain Knight called upon us to fire upon 
our friends. We told him we were anxious to get away from the island, 
but that we should prefer to be set on shore again, rather than purchase 
our freedom by such an abuse of friendship. 

Fairly out of the harbor of Matalaleme, the deportment of Captain 
Knight materially changed toward us. He was no longer the supplicant 
for intercession with the natives, but the master, imposing his authority upon 
us in every possible manner. In about fourteen days we made Guam, 
one of the Marian Islands, where Captain Knight would have left us, but 
the authorities would not permit it. By the way, I should have mentioned 
that the ship’s cook was set ashore at Matalaleme, with his own consent, 
and I directed the natives into whose canoe he stepped to carry him to 
Ahoundel, and treat him well, for my sake. Whether he, and the four 
comrades whom I left upon the islands, did not fare worse for Captain 
Knight’s conduct, I had no means of ascertaining; but must do the natives 
the justice to express the opinion, based upon a knowledge of their char¬ 
acter, that they have too much benevolence and perception of right and 
wrong to abuse known friends for the conduct of strangers, though those 
strangers were of their color and language. 

After leaving Guam, I had some altercation with Captain Knight, which 
resulted in no very agreeable consequences to myself. During the whole 
passage I had been sick, from a cold, exhaustion, fatigue, and derange¬ 
ment of my whole system, from the change of diet. Under my right arm 
was a large and very painful swelling. One night I had the watch from 
eight to twelve, the first two hours of which I spent on the topgallant yard, 
upon the lookout. When I came down I laid myself on the forecastle by 
the heel of the bowsprit, exhausted, and in agony from the swelling under 
my arm. Captain Knight came forward, and at the first intimation I had 
of his proximity was a kick. “What business have you here asleep, sir?” 
I pleaded my weakness and ill health, and the suffering I had already 
endured by the lookout at the masthead. He collared me, and I returned 
his grasp with interest; he freed himself from me, went aft, and returned 
with a brace of pistols in his hand, threatening to shoot me. I told him 
to do it; that I was tired of life, and would willingly die. He then let 
me alone for the night, and indeed we had no more words, but he hove 
to near the first land we made, lowered the boat, and ordered me into it. 
George insisted upon accompanying me, to which Captain Knight at first 
objected, but afterward consented. He then sent the second mate and 
two men with directions to leave the two Irish villians (he used a worse 
word) anywhere—on a rock, or a sand-bank, but not to bring them on 
board again. This was in the straits of Barnardino. Upon reaching the 
shore we found bullocks grazing, but saw no house, or shelter of any kind, 
and persuaded the second mate to take us back. He did so, and upon 
returning to the vessel told Ihc captain that he could not drive us from the 
boat, but that we insisted upon coming back. 

We were taken on board, and the vessel filled away again. I very 
foolishly, as the event proved, threatened Captain Knight that I would 


SEVEN YEARS OF A SAILOR’S LIFE. 


54 

represent to the authorities at Manilla his treatment of the Indians at 
Ascension, and his abuse of me. Upon arrival at that port he anticipated 
me, making all sorts of charges against us, as runaways from punishment 
at New Holland, pirates who strove to cause the capture of his vessel by 
the Indians, and mutineers on board. Upon being boarded by the cap¬ 
tain of the port at Manilla, just as we thought we had reached the end 
of our vexations and were in a way to return home, we were agreeably 
surprised by a present of leg safety-chains, and were placed, ironed, in 
the bows of the captain of the port’s barge. 

Captain Knight soon came down over the side, and seated himself under 
the awning in the stern sheets, with the captain of the port, the quarantine 
and custom-house officers; and as we sat, we could perceive we were the 
objects of the conversation. We bore this talking at , some time in silence, 
but tiring of it, I requested George to play his flute; which, by the way, 
as a memento of his residence on Ascension, he had taken care to keep 
with him. Accordingly he struck up St. Patrick’s Day in the Morning, 
Garry Owen, and divers other merry Irish tunes, to the astonishment and 
edification of the boatmen, and, after awhile, to the amusement even of 
the officers in the stern sheets. We were pulled in this way alongside 
half a dozen vessels which had just entered the harbor, and endured the 
gratification of being pointed out to their crews as felons:—a story we 
took every opportunity to contradict. The feelings of the sailors were, 
of course, with us, and their half-expressed and doubtful sympathy was 
grateful, when all the rest of the world were disposed to frown. 

After being paraded in this way about the harbor for half a day, we 
were landed, and marched with military honors up the street. We had 
reached a church—were famished with hunger, having eaten nothing since 
morning, and faint with exposure to the heat of a broiling sun. “ Is it 
vespers you are taking us to? Well,prayer after fasting.” The captain 
of our escort pointed to the opposite side of the street, and there, fronting 
the church, stood a less agreeable resort for sinners; one, like the church, 
not always sought voluntarily—the calabozo. They had the impoliteness 
to fasten the door at our backs when we entered. 

Upon entering, we found ourselves in a sort of reception room, more 
convenient for its purposes than genteel, or elegantly furnished. It was 
separated from the rest of the prison by an iron grating, through which 
the friends of the prisoners conversed with them. Through this grating 
we saw a large hall, tenanted by prisoners, but were ourselves passed 
up a flight of stone steps, communicating with the second story. At the 
end of the room opposite the entrance was an altar and crucifix; and 
we were curious as to what was coming when we were led toward it. 
The marvel ceased, however, when a door near the crucifix was opened, 
and we were ushered into the jailor’s office, and requested to favor him 
with our autographs in his album. This done, we were returned into 
the common hall, and an allowance of rice served out to us. 

All this time we had no precise knowledge of the charges made 
against us, although we knew it was something in which Captain Knight 
had a hand. Upon the next day the interpreter, who, by the way, had 
honored us with his company until he saw the key safely turned upon 
us, paid us a visit. From him we learned what the reader has already 
been informed, that there were three distinct charges, either of which 
was sufficient to authorize the affectionate care taken of us; namely, 
piracy, escape from Botany Bay, and mutinous conduct. We inquired 
whether we should have a trial, and how soon; to which he replied, that 


PUT IN PRISON AT MANILLA. 


55 

we probably should. Of Capt. Knight we saw nothing, after leaving 
him at the landing, except one day, when he passed the prison, and I 
took the liberty to hail him by name, adding sundry expletives and titles, 
more applicable and graphic than melodious and beautiful. Days passed, 
and as a sort of desperate amusement, I commenced writing letters of 
complaint, and sending them out, directed to any English or American 
resident whose name I could learn. The rial a day, which was allowed 
us from some source I never could precisely learn what, to provide our 
provender, was, after awhile, taken off, and we were served with rice 
daily, and, once or twice a week, beef and fish. 

Sailors, many of whom visited us, were in the frequent practice of 
making us small presents. With the money thus obtained, we sent and 
purchased bread and meat, but the eyes of Argus were necessary to 
prevent too frequent verification of the proverb, “many a slip ’twixt cup 
and lip.” Even after our bit of meat was in the pot with the rice, and 
we were superintending its cooking, some dextrous Chinese thief would 
whip it out with his chop-sticks, if our eye strayed from it one moment. 
Each of the prisoners is obliged to prepare his own food, in a portion of 
the prison set apart for that purpose. 

All sorts of ingenious modes of punishment were practiced upon the 
prisoners for misdeeds while there. It would almost seem the Chinese 
ingenuity of torture, tempered by a little more regard for humanity than 
the officers of his Celestial Majesty possess. Stocks, confining the culprit 
in all sorts of positions, many of which were as ludicrous as uncomforta¬ 
ble, clogs, irons, and collars, and devices, the description of which would 
tire, were in continual exercise. Flogging was going on all day, but the 
poor devils of Chinese came in for more than a proportionate share of it, 
and the blows were laid on with more hearty good-will, as they were 
heretics. 

To give variety to our life, we had an occasional opportunity of seeing 
a tenant in the pillory, opposite the prison. Here, too, during the time 
we lay in jail, we saw two or three executions, done in a manner to 
which the Turkish bowstring is tender mercy. I shall spare the reader 
the description of a method of strangulation the most horrible possible; 
only remarking, that in a country where the office of the executioner is 
so directly instrumental to the death of the criminal, and his duty so 
cruel and protracted, it is no wonder that even criminals, the most debased, 
despise the hangman. 

At the rear of the prison ran a river or canal. On the opposite bank 
stood a church, and near this lay what appeared to us a pile of human 
bones. When 1 tired of watching the passengers in the street in front, 
I looked out upon the church, and noted that no Catholics passed it 
without making a genuflection. At night, the spot was marked by a 
taper burning before the image of some saint, and I found myself fre¬ 
quently looking toward that church. I wondered if, among the bones 
there preserved upon consecrated ground, there lay the relics of any 
person so much the sport of fortune as myself, who had fallen, unwept 
and unattended, in a strange land. During no period of my residence 
upon the Carolines had I felt so utterly dispirited and forsaken, as I did, 
at times, in the prison at Manilla. I had made repeated applications for 
trial, besieged every person whose address I could learn with letters; 
the only effect of which was to bring two English merchants to the 
prison, to tell us that, as we came in an American vessel, as part of her 
crew, they could do nothing for us. The American consul, and Mr. 


56 SEVEN YEARS OF A SAILOR’S LIFE. 

Sturgis, an American resident, visited us in about a week after our 
committal. 

We were not without amusement. George had brought his violin and 
flute, of course, and I had not forgotten the exercise of my heels. 
Then, in the various assemblage, there was ample amusement in watch¬ 
ing the different disposal of time, according to character. The Chinese 
were most of them merchants, in a small way, vending tobacco, betel, 
and other “ notions,” as a Yankee would say, and there is no better 
word in the world. Stock in trade was not wanting, while there was a 
chance to exercise their expert fingers in tricks of sleight-of-hand. 
Others would operate as barbers, tailors—they had a thousand resources 
for busy idleness. Spanish blood showed itself in games of chance— 
cards, draughts, dominoes—and the parties would sit as gravely and 
intently engaged as if they had been recreating in the palace of a gran¬ 
dee. An occasional industrious one wove hats; and cooking their pilau 
was the periodical occupation of all hands. 

I indulged in an occasional game of draughts with one of my fellow- 
prisoners, a Spaniard. It did very well, till, one day, he tried to cheat 
me out of the game. The stake was not worth quarreling about, but it 
was the point of pride. We wrangled, I collared him, and was reported. 
As a punishment, I was ordered into the lower prison, and George, my 
shadow, was moved with me. This apartment, sacred to the lowest 
rogues, was by no means so light and pleasant as the upper one. There 
is a choice, even in prisons. 

Here I resumed the amusement of dispatching letters; continuing it 
until, one day, the deputy jailor came to me with orders to put me in 
close confinement. I resisted, and in the scuffle was severely bruised, 
and my rigging dismantled. Preparatory to my solitude, and to give me 
food for reflection during its continuance, I was seized down to a bench 
and beaten with cowhides. Upon entering the cell which was to be my 
temporary residence, I found that the happiness of entire solitude was 
to be denied me, and was compelled to accept the society of a Spanish 
officer, who was waiting transportation to Cadiz, and trial for murder 
upon his own confession. 

Previous to my committal to the cell, two attempts were made to 
compel me to ship on board vessels, one of which was the Dash, an 
American brig or barque, I have forgotten which. She was bound to 
the Fejees; but, as I had already had enough of the Pacific Ocean, I 
peremptorily refused to sign articles, and was remanded to prison. The 
other was a Spanish vessel, and I declined, in terms more positive than 
polite, to go in her. The American consul gave me a rating for annoying 
the residents with letters, and for refusing to go away by the opportu¬ 
nities he provided for me. After these adventures I was confined in the 
cell, as before stated, and could not, in my own mind, avoid connecting 
them as, at least, partial cause and effect. 

The burden of my complaint had been the delay of a trial. Why was 
no attempt made to substantiate the charges made against me? Why no 
opportunity given me to disprove them? The treatment I endured 
would have been adequate punishment for any crime short of willful 
murder. Beaten, half-starved, and worse than all, thrust, ironed, into a 
noisome cell with a murderer ; a portion of the time bolted to the floor 
of that cell, and upon three successive Sabbaths paraded with my room¬ 
mate to prayers, before all the prisoners, who classed me with the mur¬ 
derer ; and all this without the show of any reason, or the pretense of 


THRUST INTO THE DUNGEON. 


57 

it. No formal charge was ever made, or, if made, was ever prosecuted. 
Upon our egress from the prison, Mr. Sturgis gave George and me five 
dollars, and the consul procured us a passage to Macao in a Spanish 
ship. 

The prison was a miniature Pandemonium—a little hell, where the 
worst passions and propensities of the brutal officers who managed it 
had license unrestrained. I have been fastened in a position painful of 
itself, my legs extended and arms confined, while two brutes adminis¬ 
tered flagellation with heavy cowhides. In the struggle which preceded 
my being thrust into the dungeon, my body was so completely denuded 
of clothing, that, in the cold, damp cell, I was fain thankfully to accept 
the comfort of a portion of the mat of the miserable felon who was the 
occupant of the cell with me. Even the sorry privilege of perambula¬ 
tion about my narrow quarters was, during a portion of the time, denied 
me. Heavy irons upon my feet, bolting them about three feet apart, 
were connected with a chain to my left arm, compelling me to keep the 
arm straight by my side, when I stood erect. The bolt between my legs 
was, during about a week of the three I spent in the cell, fastened to a 
ring-bolt in the floor. The food served me there was a miserable pit¬ 
tance of half-boiled rice, floating in three times the quantity of water 
necessary to cook it. This, with two small broiled fish, was barely suffi¬ 
cient to sustain my miserable existence. Never, during my life, did I 
so utterly despair as when confined in this horrid hole, seeing no person 
except my convict companion, save when, upon the Sabbath, I walked in 
my irons to the altar, to see the institutions of religion profaned in a 
place where its dictates were utterly set at naught. For all this, decency 
would seem to require, at least, the form of an examination upon the 
charges preferred by Capt. Knight; but no such form, to give my con¬ 
finement a color of justice, ever took place. Upon my liberation, the 
Spy had been sold, and Capt. Knight had left Manilla. His unsupported 
word had been sufficient to throw me into the power of these demons, 
and, careless of my fate, he left me there. The inquiry may be made, 
why, if my confinement was so irksome, I did not gladly embrace the 
first opportunity to escape from it. To this I answer, that the worst part 
of my punishment did not take place till after I had so refused, and that 
my principal reason for refusing was my unwillingness to leave George, 
unfriended, in a prison. We had been together so long, and had become 
so endeared to each other by a participation in good and ill fortune, that 
to separate was even more painful than to endure the worst that the 
prison would inflict. I knew that no constitution, even the most iron, 
could long bear up under the hard usage and scanty food; the records 
were before me in the names of British and American citizens carved 
on the guard-bed. Under many of these, survivors had written the date 
of the death of the persons who cut them there ; and the mate of the 
Spanish vessel in which I left Manilla, who was an American, and had 
himself been a prisoner in Manilla, informed me that he had known 
many instances where foreign sailors had fallen victims to the combined 
ill effects of the climate and the prison. 

Arrived at Macao, we were thence sent to Canton. At Canton, we 
were objects of curiosity, and were visited by merchants and others con¬ 
nected with the English Factory; our tattooing examined, and our story 
of shipwreck and residence on the Carolines was repeated two or three 
times a day, during the week we remained there. Through those gen¬ 
tlemen, the owners, and others interested in the John Bull, probably, 


SEVEN YEARS OF A SAILOR’S LIFE. 


58 

heard of the loss of that vessel, if it had not before been published by 
our shipmates who took the other boats. Of the fate of any except those 
who escaped in the boat with us, I have never heard a syllable. It 
may be that they found their way to other islands in the Pacific, and it 
may be that they perished at sea. 


SUCCESSFUL RESISTANCE OF THREE SAILORS AGAINST 
SEVERAL THOUSAND SAVAGES. 

The story of O’Connell well illustrates the superiority of even one 
civilized man over multitudes of his savage fellow-men. By means of 
this superiority, the European, or American, cast upon a barbarous shore, 
will often, indeed, will commonly, secure assistance and support from 
those who must respect his greater intelligence, and will desire to profit 
by his acquired knowledge, both so much superior to their own. Most 
of the instances of the slaughter of sailors or travelers by the barbarians 
of Oceanica, which have come to our knowledge, have evinced either 
great imprudence or criminal conduct on the part of these victims of 
savage fury. The following account of the successful contest of three 
English sailors with a large tribe of cannibal assailants, while it illus¬ 
trates the superiority of civilized weapons and civilized courage and 
skill, seems also to show that this was a case of unprovoked assault of 
disappointed rage, upon brave and innocent men. 

Mr. Dillon was an officer of the ship “ Hunter,” commanded by Captain 
Robson, who had made many voyages to the Fejee Islands, and enjoyed 
a certain influence with the natives, from having interested himself in 
their dissensions and contests. Bonassar, the chief of Wailea, in parti¬ 
cular, was his friend. 

The nineteenth of February, 1813, the Hunter came to anchor in the 
Bay of Wailea, opposite a small river which leads to the village, lying 
at half a league distance from the shore, and situated upon an elevated 
spot. 

When Robson had fairly established himself in the harbor, he received 
a visit from his old friend Bonassar, who told him that, in his absence, 
fortune had turned against him, and that the tribes which had once sub¬ 
mitted were again in revolt, and had called to their aid other and more 
powerful tribes, which had caused a bloody and disastrous war. Bonassar 
expressed the hope that the visit of his old friend would help to improve 
his affairs, and insinuated that the necessity of defending the court would 
prevent the natives from going to the mountains to gather sandal-wood 
for the Hunter, unless the captain would come to his assistance against 
his enemies. Bonassar’s welcome to his friend was, in other respects, 
not less cordial nor frank than usual. At this time, a number of Euro¬ 
pean sailors, either deserters or shipwrecked on the island, were in the 
service of several of the chiefs, well treated, and made much of by their 
savage friends. 

Captain Robson sought to evade the urgency of Bonassar, but was, at 
length, over-persuaded by the promise of a supply of sandal-wood, and 
lent him twenty musketeers, three small boats, and a cannon carrying 
two-pound ball. Accompanied by an army of three or four thousand 
savages, they made an attack on the hostile island of Nanpakob, which 
was soon conquered, and the dead bodies of its inhabitants, cut limb from 



SUCCESSFUL RESISTANCE OF THREE SAILORS. 


59 

limb, and rolled in green leaves, were roasted with the taro-root, to fur¬ 
nish a feast to the victors. Robson had fulfilled his part of the contract, 
but Bonassar would not comply with his promise. Under diffeient pre¬ 
texts, the loading was delayed, and, finally, the natives ceased to come 
aboard, fearing they might be seized and kept as hostages. 

This made Robson furious, and he attacked the fleet of Bonassar, and / 
captured fourteen of his vessels. Subsequently he made a more gene¬ 
ral attack, with the intention of entirely destroying the military power of 
the Fejee chief. In this engagement the fatal mistake of separating his 
men into small detachments was made, which gave the cunning savages 
an opportunity to cut them off in detail, by means of crafty ambuscades. 
When a retreat became necessary, the small party to which Dillon be¬ 
longed was under the command of Normon, the mate, who fell, pierced 
by a lance, leaving the command to him. Everything then looked des¬ 
perate to the party, and nothing seemed left but to sell their lives as 
dearly as possible, when Dillon perceived, in the midst of the plain, an 
isolated rock, abrupt and inaccessible, a kind of fortress placed there for 
their safety—a rampart of nature’s making, to whose summit the arrows 
of the natives could hardly reach. To see this refuge, to point it out to 
his companions, and to direct his steps toward it, was but the work of a 
moment. Dillon established himself in this aerie, with Savage, Burhart, 
Duprey and Wilson, Europeans, and a Chinaman, named Luis. The 
rest of the detachment had been killed, and Duprey himself was pierced 
with a lance, beside having four arrow-wounds in his back. Fortunately 
for these poor fellows, the rock, accessible only on a single side, was 
easy to defend. 

Meanwhile, the fury of the savages became a little calmed, and a parley 
was agreed upon. Among the prisoners taken by Robson, and carried 
on board the Hunter, was a brother of the high priest of Vai-Tea. To 
this priest, Dillon proposed an exchange of the savages, in confinement, 
for him and his companions, which was agreed to, and Duprey was sent 
on board, together with the priest, to perfect the arrangement. Mean¬ 
time, the chief of the Fejeeans approached the base of the rock, and 
sought to entice the Europeans from their posts. To all their promises, 
Dillon turned a deaf ear, and counseled his companions to do the same. 
But one of them, Savage, who had lived among them for several years, 
trusting in their good faith, descended the rock, and placed himself under 
the protection of Bonassar, who welcomed him with great seeming cor¬ 
diality. This induced Luis, the Chinese, to do the same, and to claim 
the protection of one of the chiefs to whom he had formerly rendered 
several services. Thinking that with these two examples, Dillon would 
be induced to come down, they renewed their solicitations, but in vain. 
Then throwing off their mask, the savages raised a great cry, seized 
Savage, plunged his head in a ditchful of water, and speedily dispatched 
him, while a blow from another of the murderers made an end of the 
Chinese. Dismembered and roasted, these poor fellows were soon 
eaten under the eyes of Dillon. 

There now. remained upon the rock, only Dillon, Burhart, and Wilson 
—three men against many thousand assailants. Thinking they now 
should have it their own way, the savages recommenced the attack with 
new fury. Burhart, a skillful marksman, shot twenty-seven of the 
assailants in twenty-nine shots. Dillon also dispatched a large number. 
Wilson confined himself to loading the muskets of his two companions, 
soon the outside of their citadel became encumbered with dead bodies, 


SEVEN YEARS OF A SAILOR’S LIFE. 


60 

when the savages, fearful of provoking almost certain destruction, ceased 
further attack, for the present, trusting that the darkness of night, or 
hunger, would, sooner or later, deliver their victims into their hands. 

Then scenes of horrible cannibalism were practiced under the eyes 
of the Europeans. The limbs of their dead companions were drawn 
from the fire, and divided among the tribes, who devoured them with 
horrible ferocity; but occasionally ceasing their repast to taunt Dillon 
and his companions, with the assurance that to-morrow they also would 
be roasted and eaten. To Dillon’s threat, that if they were killed, the 
native prisoners on board would likewise be killed, the cannibals only 
answered, “Bah! bah! Captain Robson may eat our friends if that will 
do him any good; but we will eat you there to-morrow, any how.” 

When night came, their situation was painful in the extreme. They 
had but seventeen cartridges left, and the first attack of the savages must 
deliver them into the hands of their pitiless enemies. None of them 
were willing to be taken alive by these feeders on human flesh, and 
were about agreeing to destroy their own lives, when, for a moment, 
their hopes were raised by seeing a boat put off from the Hunter, and 
steer directly for the land. But what was their amazement and regret, 
when they saw that the commander had committed the unpardonable 
fault of releasing the whole number of prisoners, thus cutting off* all 
chance of escape for them. What motive could now induce the natives 
to spare them, when all fear of reprisals had been taken away? 

“A little afterward,” says Dillon, in his narrative of these events, “the 
released prisoners came to me without arms, led on by their priest, who 
said that Captain Robson had sent a case of cutlery, and other things, to 
the chiefs, as our ransom, to whom we were also ordered to surrender 
our arms. The priest added, that, in case we complied, he would con¬ 
duct us safely to our boats. To all this, I replied, that while a breath of 
life remained in me, I would deliver my musket to nobody: it was my 
own property, and I should hold on to it, certain that if I gave it up, I 
should be treated as my dead companions had been. Failing with me, 
the priest turned to Martin Burhart, and sought to persuade him to 
acquiesce in his proposal. At this moment the idea entered my head to 
make a prisoner of the priest, and either to kill him, or to obtain my 
liberty in exchange for his. Seizing a gun, I presented it at the priest, 
threatening to kill him if he attempted to escape, or if any of his party 
made the least movement toward attacking us, or to hinder in any way 
our retreat. I then ordered him to march for the boat in a direct line, 
menacing him with instant death, if he disobeyed. He did as he was 
directed, and while traversing through the crowd of savages, he exhorted 
them to be quiet, and do no harm, for if they assailed us, we would kill 
him, which would bring down upon them the wrath of the gods in the 
clouds, who, irritated at their disobedience, would cause the ocean to 
swallow up them and their island. The natives obeyed his orders, and 
sat down, while we marched toward the boat. When near the landing, 
the priest stopped short, refusing to stir another step, and saying we 
might kill him if we wished. I threatened him, but without effect. He 
said our object was to take him on board our ship, in order to torture 
him. As we had no time to lose, I ordered him to stand still, while we, 
marching backward, with our guns all pointed at him, soon reached one 
of our boats. We were scarcely embarked, before a cloud of arrows 
and stones darkened the air, but we soon found ourselves beyond the 
reach of their bows and slings.” 

O 


PADDOCK’S NARRATIVE 


OP 

BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS, 

DETAILING THE SUFFERINGS OF THE MASTER AND CREW OF THE SHIP OSWEGO, UPON THE 


COAST OF SOUTH BARBARY. 


On the 8th of January, 1800, says Captain Judah Paddock, in his nar¬ 
rative, I left New York in the Ship Oswego, of Hudson, of which I was 
the commander, with a cargo of flaxseed and staves on freight, bound to 
Cork. Our passage out was very rough, but we arrived there in 24 days. 
After lying a few days and finding nothing better to employ the ship in, I 
concluded to ballast her and go to the Cape de Verd Islands, and take a 
load of salt, skins etc., for New York. While the ship was preparing for 
the voyage, I was able to collect about 1200 Spanish dollars, besides 600 
dollars in gold. While in Cork we had heard of several instances of 
vessels being robbed on the coast of Spain, by vessels bearing the French 
flag. The truth of these reports I will leave, but thought if they were 
to rob me of the 1200 dollars it should require some time to find them. 
Accordingly I took a small keg, just large enough to contain the money, 
at my lodgings, and packed it snug. At a late hour in the evening, 
everything being prepared, I took the keg on board while all were asleep 
but my officers ; unheaded a barrel of beef, took one half out, put the keg 
in the middle of the barrel, filled it up again, stowed it away along side 
the keelson, and put the other provisions over it as they were before. 
None of our crew knew anything of this transaction till some time after 
we were wrecked. 

On the 22d of March, a fine breeze at N. N. W. and fair weather, we 
put to sea. In the afternoon, while arranging my papers, it occurred to 
my mind that we had a man on board who had not signed the shipping 
articles, and, sending for him down, and presenting them for signing, he, 
to my astonishment, refused, by saying he did not belong to the ship, and 
knew better than to sign any such articles. I ordered him out of the 
cabin, and, sending for the mate, I told him his man, as I called him, 
refused signing the shipping articles. The mate was exceedingly pro¬ 
voked at it. We sent for the man again, and he making use of the same 
language, I threatened to put him ashore on the first place we should 
8top at, and as he still persisted, we sent him out of the cabin a second 
time, declaring he should be put on board the first British ship of war 
that we should fall in with. 

I will now relate the story of that man’s being in the ship. A few 
days before sailing from Cork, I went on board the ship, and saw a 
stranger at the caboose; on asking the mate who he was, he informed me 
he came on board the day before, as ragged and dirty as he ever saw a 
man, and begged to work his passage home ; that he pitied his condition, 
gave him some pieces of clothing, and put him to the caboose, and had 
found him a good cook. I suspected he was some runaway sailor, and told 

( 61 ) 



62 


BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 


the mate to put him ashore, and went myself below. As soon as the fellow 
found he was to be landed, he came below, and begged very hard to go 
to America, saying he was very poor, that the times were so hard he could 
not get a living in the country he came from, and that he had no family 
nor friends: he really appeared an object of pity. I told him I suspected 
he was some runaway sailor or soldier; he denied that he had ever been 
either. I then concluded to let him remain a day or two on board, more 
especially as the mate pleaded so hard for him. When I went on shore, 
I mentioned the circumstance to some of my friends who had seen him 
on board, and thought he was to be pitied, and that I had better take 
him. I have been more particular in stating this thing, in order to 
prepare the reader for what will be related concerning that fellow 
hereafter. 

Nothing material happened from the time of our leaving Ireland to the 
3d of April, being then twelve days from land; and having had moderate 
and variable gales with fine weather, and also several opportunities to as¬ 
certain the exact variation of the compass, we had every reason to believe 
our reckoning was right. Toward night of this day, as I was sitting in 
the cabin, and reflecting on our situation as to our passage track, etc. I 
was led to look over my reckoning again, feeling some uneasiness that I 
cannot easily describe. When the boy brought our tea down I took up 
my books and papers, and gave him the table, and as soon as his things 
were arranged I sent him to call the mates; it was now near dark; he 
returned, and said the mates were forward at work, and could not come 
yet. I drank some tea, and laid down with my clothes on, thinking to go 
on deck at 8 o’clock, which was near at hand. Having been hard at work 
all the day, I was somewhat fatigued, and unexpectedly fell asleep. I 
awoke at the sound from striking four bells; was on my feet feeling for 
my hat, and with no light burning, when I heard an unusually loud noise. 
The first thought that struck me, was of a man being overboard. Before 
getting out of the gangway I distinctly heard those forward crying out. 
Breakers! Breakers right ahead! and several of the crew were running 
aft. I saw nothing, nor did I look forward, but ran to the helm to put it 
up ; too late, for it was hard down, or nearly so. I put my hand on the 
tiller-head, and bore it hard to the rail, when, in a moment, the ship flew 
to, head to the wind, our yards being a little pointed or braced. By this 
time all hands were on deck, and a number aft, to haul round the after 
yards. We were on the point of hauling, when I discovered her to fall 
off. At that moment we hauled up the mizzen, sbe having such quick 
stern way with the helm yet down, the main and mizzen topsail kept 
shivering or edging to the wind; the jib and fore staysail sheets being 
hauled flat, she fell off remarkably quick, every man using his greatest 
exertions. When she began to gather headway, the helm righted with 
the wind at least two points on the starboard quarter, wanting not more 
than once her length of coming round, heading off shore; at that moment 
she struck tremendously heavy, all the cabin windows came in, and part 
of the sea came over the taffle rail. She struck twice more in the hollow 
of the two next seas, and floated, running perhaps three or four times her 
length, and struck again, and stopped with every sea breaking over us, no 
land in sight, and we seemingly swallowed up by the raging ocean 
foaming terribly around us. Her stern soon drove round, so as to bring 
the sea on our beam, and at every thump she rolled off, with her gunwale 
near to the water. By this time we saw the land at no great distance 
from us. 


INSUBORDINATION OF THE CREW. 


63 

We had now recovered a little from our fright, when I desired the men 
to go into the hold and shovel the ballast in shore, to prevent her rolling 
off; in the meantime those of us left on deck braced our yards as hard 
aback as could be done, to keep her on. In half an hour, with the assis¬ 
tance of the sails and by shifting the ballast, she had beat up so high on 
the rocks as to lay pretty still; yet every sea rolled some part of it on 
deck. Before as much ot the ballast was shifted as I wished, one of our 
men came on deck in great haste, and informed me that the ship was 
sinking, the water coming in amain: it was some time before I could con¬ 
vince him, that though she might be filling, she could not sink any lower, 
being already on the rocks. 

We were in this situation some short time, saying very little to each 
other, standing by the mizzen mast and holding to the rigging that was 
hanging all around us, when two or three of our men came aft, and asked 
me on what coast we were stranded? I told them my fears were that 
we were on the coast of Barbary, but I had a faint hope that it was one 
of the Canary islands; that daylight only would determine it, and we must be 
patient for its approach. It was now about midnight. One of them told 
me that those forward thought the ship would go to pieces before morning. 
I used every argument in my power to convince him of their error, telling 
him the ship was sound, and as strong as wood and iron could make her; 
that she never had a cargo in her before this one; that she had been 
employed in the whale fishery from the time she was new, and had never 
been overstrained. He returned forward only for a short time, when 
several of them came aft, and proposed to go ashore: that proposal made 
me shudder. I told them it would, from every appearance, be present 
death to attempt it, as we now had a considerable view of the hideous 
rocks within, and could plainly see the imp^acticableness of ascending 
them, and that another important point to be considered was, in case they 
should land in safety, the boat would be dashed to pieces; that she was a 
very large long-boat, new, and never afloat; that in her, with a temporary 
deck, which could be made in a few hours, we all might either land there, 
or go to any other place we should choose; and that if we were on the 
coast of Barbarv, it would be absolutely necessary for us to have a craft 
to get to the Canaries or some other place, having no reason to expect 
much mercy from the natives of that country. 

This reasoning I thought would have a good effect, and so it seemed 
at first, for all was quiet. But very soon a new proposition came, and 
that was to cut away the masts, as by their standing there would be danger 
of the ship’s coming to pieces; and they told me if I would consent to 
have them cut away, they would stay till morning. I ordered my second 
mate to take the carpenter’s ax from the tool-chest on deck and begin 
cutting away. When I saw the mast was about half cut off, I told one 
of them to get into the mizzen chains and cut the lanyards and let them 
go. He got into the chains and cut one lanyard, and raised himself up 

very deliberately and said, “It is all-nonsense, we will go ashore.” 

As grating as that expression was, prudence forbade my making a reply, 
or noticing it. They all assembled again under the lee of the long-boat, 
the officers excepted, and held a council. We soon saw them getting up 
the boat-tackles to the fore and main yards. I began then to reason with 
them upon the impropriety of that measure, when the only reply I heard, 
was, “We are in duty bound to take care of ourselves, and not stay here 
and drown.” I went aft to my mates, who had said but very little during 
the time we had been in this situation, and asked them their opinion of 



BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 


64 

the measure that was about to be pursued. If I recollect aright, my 
second mate, who was a good young man, said he should prefer staying 
by the ship. On the contrary, the chief mate, without hesitation, said it was 
his opinion that we should take the boat, and land; that he had once been 
shipwrecked in the West Indies; when choosing to stay by the wreck 
rather than to leave it, he very narrowly escaped death, and had then 
made up his mind, that, in a like situation, he. would always leave the 
wreck the first opportunity: yet that, in the present case, seeing how 
anxious I was to stay by the wreck, he, although of the contrary opinion 
himself, would have been silent if I had prevailed on the crew to have 
stayed. He was an excellent seaman, a firm determined man, and had 
kept our men under the best discipline. 

Matters by this time were all settled. Go ashore, was the word; the 
tackles were soon on the yards, and the boat hoisted out. So great was 
the haste on leaving the ship, that neither provisions nor water were put 
in: I hove in one trunk, and took my gold, which had been always under 
my pillow. So, off we pushed, and rowed toward the land, and the nearer 
it we gained, the more hideous was the appearance. We succeeded at 
last in reaching the rocks, when two men jumping out, without the boat’s 
rope, the under-tow was so strong that it carried the boat half way back 
to the ship, where she was placed broadside to the sea, and was near 
filling. Our oars were so well plied the second time, that we soon reached 
the rocks again, when two men having the rope, jumped on 4hem, and 
were assisted by the first two, who had acted before out of fear, rather 
than from any unfeelingness toward their shipmates; and now assisted to 
hold the boat in a situation for us all to get safe on the rocks; which done, 
every one with all his strength, hauled the boat as far up as possible. 
We then crawled over those slippery rocks, perhaps from ten to twelve 
feet high, to a sand bed, a little beyond which appeared a high hill, upward 
of a hundred feet in altitude. There we wrung the water from our clothes, 
and walked the sand some time, when my mates and myself ascended 
this sand hill; it being dark, we could see nothing, nor did we expect 
to see anything except the light of fire. After walking a little while on 
this mountain of sand, we descended again to the place where our men 
had remained, who had forgotten their cares in sound sleep. As to our¬ 
selves, we walked the sand all that night, bemoaning our condition, being 
pretty well assured that we were in no other place than the coast of Bar¬ 
bary. The ship was in sight, with all sails standing; the wind blew very 
fresh about four points 011 shore, and we thought it probable that her masts 
would go by the board before morning; a light was burning in the cabin. 

On the morning of the 4th of April, as soon as the day began to dawn. 
I ascended the high mountain of sand, and there remained till near sunrise. 
What could I see ? A barren sand, without either tree or shrub, or the least 
appearance of vegetation, dreary in every respect; and at a distance back, 
a long range of mountains extending east and west. Turning my view 
toward the ocean, and beholding the ship lying in the surf with her sails 
aloft, while thirteen of my shipmates were standing together before my 
eyes! I laid myself down on the sand, and gave vent to my grief by a 
flow of tears. 

As soon as I had composed myself a little I descended, and joined my 
crew, who were waiting with the greatest anxiety to know what I had 
seen. When I had related my tale, and giving my opinion as to our hopes 
of the future, we began to devise means to get back to our ship. Upon 
examining our long-boat, we found her garboard streak was staved and 


THE SHIP ABANDONED. 


65 

shattered for several feet, and that a hole in another plank had been 
broken through by the sharp corner of a rock and that she lay from ten 
to fifteen feet below where it was possible to repair her; while a fine 
yawl of sixteen feet was hanging in the tackles over the stern of the ship. 
The poor fellow who, the night before, was the ringleader in the project 
for landing at all events, was now the first to exclaim; “Had we done as 
the captain advised us, we should now have been in a situation to go any¬ 
where in so fine a boat as this!” Upon which, I took occasion to caution 
him and all the others against disobedience; there being then no greater 
proof necessary than that before their eyes to convince them all of the 
error they had committed. 

Our first object was to get back to the ship for a supply of provisions 
and water, and also of spars and tackles to raise the long-boat for repairs; 
we feeling in hopes that all could be effected before any discovery of us 
should be made by the natives. Marks of horses and asses were visible 
on the beach, but, from appearances, it had been some considerable time 
since they had been there. One of our sailors said he could swim to the 
ship, which was at a distance of not more than a hundred yards. He 
made many attempts, but failed; the difficulty was in getting beyond the 
breakers. The next attempt was made by black Sam, who, after two or 
three hard efforts, succeeded in getting through the breakers, but his 
strength was so much exhausted that he sunk. Next, two or three of our 
men went in, following the undertow, or recession of the surf; then they 
plunged in and seized hold of Sam, and found no difficulty in returning, 
as the first surf hove them all up together, and those on the shore helped 
them out. He was entirely helpless and apparently almost gone: we laid 
him on the rocks, face down, and by moderately rolling and moving him 
he was made to discharge much water from his mouth, and in a few hours 
recovered so far as to walk a little. Several others attempted it, but all 
their attempts proved abortive. 

The next plan was to make a raff, in order to pole off to the outer side 
of the breakers. Timber for that purpose was not lacking, as many parts 
of a wreck were lying along shore, as far each way as the eye could 
discern. We took part of the lower yard of a heavy ship, along with 
some pieces of small spars, enough for our purpose, and lashed them 
together with the boat’s rope; when the second mate, a very strong man, 
and two good sailors, with each an oar for a pole, launched them off. 
However, after a fair trial, we found it impossible to gain the ship. I was 
then about taking my turn to swim, and to gain the ship by a method I 
had seen practiced by the Portuguese at Madeira, when they went off 
shore merely for their amusement; that was, to follow the receding water 
as low as possible, and dive or dart through the breaker, and when once 
got without, the difficulty was surmounted. But my mate, after observing 
to me that we were all so weak with fatigue and want of water, that if 
we did not board the ship very soon we never should at all; he proposed 
trying himself the experiment first, and, in case of failure, that I should 
make the last trial. Accordingly he stripped and followed down, and in 
less than five minutes from the time of starting he was at the ship. 

It was not late in the afternoon, and a general rejoicing took place. 
The rudder was unhung, which served very well as a bridge for him to 
pass on to the cabin windows, where he entered her. As soon as he had 
quenched his burning thirst he came on deck, made the deep sea-line fast 
to an oar, and darted it ashore; and that served as a hauling-line for others 
to get off by; three went off by it, with directions how to pass our goods 
5 


66 BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 

on shore. Having a cask of whale line oil deck, I ordered a single block 
to be made fast to the mizzen topmast head, and through it rove this line, 
sending the end ashore, and keeping the bite on deck. 

They scuttled the water-casks in the hatchway, which were found floating 
in the held; filled all the jugs and kegs, and put what bread was found 
between decks in bags, and run them aloft by this line; as they veered 
we hauled: by keeping a taut line our goods were landed dry. The 
whole of the provisions saved by us consisted of about forty pounds of 
bread, a small quantity of potatoes and onions, and a bag of Indian corn; 
our other dry provisions were in the lower hold and destroyed by the salt 
water. Being placed high on the rocks, we succeeded in landing every¬ 
thing perfectly dry which would be injured by the wet. In the same man¬ 
ner we landed our clothes, beds, etc., together with a spare foresail for a 
tent. In that affair of landing our goods we committed an act of imprudence 
which I cannot forbear mentioning as a caution to others who may be 
unfortunately placed in the like circumstances. The mate sent, among 
other things, my case, containing six gallons of equal parts of rum, gin, 
and brandy, and a hamper of port wine and porter. At the moment, I did 
not think it any harm to have this liquor sent ashore: but more of this 
matter in its place. 

A little after sunset our men landed in the yawl, leaving a rope fast to 
the ship with one end to the shore. In the meantime, having erected our 
tent, we boiled some meat, and had a good supper prepared. At eight 
o’clock we divided ourselves into watches, and set the watch, who were 
to sit or stand outside of the tent, and be relieved every two hours, with 
orders, in case of any person or persons approaching, to wake us up in 
the tent, and, if possible, to secure them without noise. All things being 
arranged, my mates and myself concluded to begin early in the morning, 
and to land every article that should be necessary for repairing the boat, 
which we thought might be repaired in two days so as to be ready for our 
departure; as we had new canvas sufficient for putting on her a canvas- 
deck supported by carlings or beams. It was late before we went to sleep. 
At daylight, on the 5th, the watch called all hands, and we went to work. 
A little before breakfast I took a turn on the hill with my glass. The sun 
shone on the mountains, which made a very handsome appearance. I had 
a strong desire to know whether there were any inhabitants there; if there 
were any, the chance, I thought, was very much against our getting off 
before being discovered. I mentioned this thing to my mates, who, with 
me, thought well of sending a man on that errand. One soon volunteered 
to go; and as soon as breakfast was over he took a bottle of water and 
two cakes of bread, and started, with orders to keep a bright lookout, 
and in case he discovered any persons, to conceal himself from their view, 
and return as soon as he could. We had a compass on shore, by which 
we found that the shore lay due east and west; and ten or twelve miles 
westward of us a Cape projected into the sea in a very square bluff.— 
Not knowing where we were, I proposed for one man to walk westward 
and survey that Cape, intending to get the altitude of the sun at noon, to 
ascertain our latitude, and if from where we saw the bluff the land shaped 
southerly, he should follow it along as far as only to give time to return 
at night. I thought if that was Cape Nun, he would find Nun river. 

This second man was soon ready to start, with the same stock of pro¬ 
visions and water, and bearing the same orders as the first one. By this 
time we had commenced landing the carpenter’s tools, and the materials 
for raising the boat, etc. Every man seemed disposed to do his duty 


I 


PAT AND THE DANE MISBEHAVE. 07 

freely, but so many little accidents happened that we got along very slowly: 
what was done before dinner did not amount to much, nor did we think 
of a quadrant, our minds being occupied about things of more importance. 
In the afternoon we progressed considerably well, and by night we were 
prepared to commence repairing the boat, which was to be begun the 
next morning. Some time before night, with the glass I saw a person 
on the beach, a long way to the westward, and soon made him out to be 
our man; it being then at least three hours sooner than I had expected 
him. As he approached nearer, I discovered that he walked quick; and 
fearing some bad news, I went on to meet him. As soon as we were 
near enough to speak to each other, I asked him what was the matter 
with him, for he really looked frightened. He asked me if I knew what 
kind of people inhabited this country. I told him I did not, but was 
apprehensive they were the Arabs. He said, they are man-eaters! Upon 
asking him how he knew it, he replied, about twelve miles from us is that 
Cape you see there: I went on it, and there I saw a heap of human bones, 
and near them a fire had been made within a few days; and adding, the 
Lord have mercy on us! he began to weep. In a short time he collected 
himself, when I told him I did not believe these people were man-eaters, 
though the fire near human bones certainly indicated something like it, 
and that if he told the story in the tent I should despair of getting away; 
that our people would fall into a state of despair, and nothing would be 
done. He made me a solemn promise not to mention anything of the 
kind, and I believe he was true to that promise. 

After this, we returned to the tent, where our people were all assembled, 
waiting for supper. We observed that Pat had as much to say as any of 
them, and that, ever since we landed, he had taken some liberties unbe¬ 
coming a man in his station, and unsuitable to the gloomy condition we 
were in.—I examined the liquor-case, and found it had not been opened 
since noon, when each man had a small allowance of rum. After supper, 
and near dark, we went upon the hill, to look out for the man who had 
been dispatched to the mountains, and stayed about the place till quite 
dark, but had no sight of him. We became very uneasy about him; some 
were of the opinion that he had been devoured by wild beasts, and others 
that he had found inhabitants on the mountains who detained him. This 
talk lasted half an hour, and we then returned to the tent, where we all 
joined in conversation on the subject of our departure; every one agreeing 
that the long-boat might be nearly ready in one day more, if every exertion 
were made; and of that I had no reason to doubt. The next topic of 
discourse was concerning the parts of the wreck, which we had noticed 
to be lying along shore. The man from the Cape said he had seen almost 
every part of a ship, in his way to and from the Cape, and had observed 
particularly that the iron had been taken from the wood; that circumstance 
we also had noticed in viewing the yards, cross-trees, etc., which lay 
within our ship. We all concluded that the event of that shipwreck could 
not have been a long time past, as the blacking on the yards was not entirely 
chafed off. 

At dawn of day on the 6th, we found no person on the watch; when, 
upon examining into this matter, it was found that Pat and one of the 
Danes had been called at twelve to watch till two; and that those appointed 
to watch from two to four had not been called. This discovery immedi¬ 
ately led us to the two most unfeeling of mortals, Pat and the Dane, who 
were found behind the tent, and in such a condition as to be unfit to be 
talked to. Upon which, without the least hesitation, I took my case out 


68 


BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 


of the tent, and turned each bottle up-end down: then I opened the ham 
per, and destroyed every bottle of wine and porter; doing this in the 
presence of all, when only one dissented, and he a very sober man. Thus 
was ended, as I thought, every opportunity for intoxication in our company. 
We all, excepting the two sleepers, commenced our labor, rigging tackles, 
erecting shears, etc., in order to raise the boat. In the meantime, I took 
a lookout on the hill for our absent man, but saw nothing of him, and 
returned to the tent, and called all hands to breakfast, which was prepared 
without the assistance of Pat, who had risen, and taken a copious draught 
of water; after which he joined the party, declaring most solemnly that 
neither he nor his walchmate had tasted a drop of liquor that night. All 
the reply was, a round of such vulgar sailors’ blessings as are commonly 
bestowed on such occasions. Thinking that a thing of the kind could not 
happen with us again, 1 judged it most prudent to quiet the men, by 
telling them that although a great crime, it was not an unpardonable one; 
that our situation demanding all our strength, we had none to waste in 
altercations, and so must make the best of it. 

I found, during the morning, that most of the crew thought it advisable 
to give the two delinquents a little corporal punishment; but in a moment 
as it were, our attention was called to viewing a strange track of man. 
When we retired from breakfast, the person who had been at the Cape 
the day before, discovered the track of a man without shoes, and calling 
to one of our men, he asked him if any of them had been barefooted 
yesterday; and was answered in the negative. Upon hearing that question 
and the answer, I went to him, and soon was convinced that we had been 
visited the night before. We followed the tracks of two men: they had 
come down the hill from the southwest, and walked round to the mouth of 
the tent, and, afterjjoing around the tent, had returned by the way they 
came, walking back over the hill nearly in the same line they had come in. 
I followed them beyond the hill near a quarter of a mile, conjecturing it 
likely that they were in ambush, but found it not so, from the shape of the 
track; for as soon as they got over the hill they ran, which appeared by 
their steps being longer, and the impression of their feet in the sand 
deeper. What makes their gettingoff undiscovered the more remarkable, 
they had a dog with them, and we had a hog lying on the sand before the 
tent. Had the dog barked, some of us must have heard it. So again, 
had the watch done their duty (as probably they would, if there had been 
no liquor in the tent) they would have seen those men approaching, and 
giving us notice of it, we might have secured them, and kept them in 
confinement; that would have doubled our diligence, and in one day more 
we might have been at sea. 

It was now nine o’clock, and our man for the mountains still missing. 
We called all hands together upon this gloomy occasion. Our poor sailors 
sat silent at this meeting; without uttering a word, they all looked up to 
me as their counselor. I observed to them that the two men who had 
discovered us would probably return in a short time with such numbers 
as would overpower us, and then might do with us as was most for their 
interest, or as best suited their caprice; that, according to my calculation, 
if the Cape we saw was Nun, our distance to St. Cruz, on a straight line 
was not more than a hundred and eighty miles; and allowing one fourth 
part for going in such a serpentine line, as we had reason to expect, we 
might reach there in ten days by easy marches; and that five bottles of 
water and twenty biscuits a man would support nature; more than which 
we could not take with convenience. Every one agreed to the plan 


THE MAN FROM THE MOUNTAINS. 


69 

immediately, and to take our chance of meeting with obstructions on the 
way; and the matter being settled, all as one set to work at making knap¬ 
sacks. While that was going on, I took one man with me and buried in 
the sand all our muskets, powder, shot, etc. Some of the sailors objected 
to that measure, by saying we might have occasion for our guns to shoot 
the wild beasts that might annoy us. But I told them that a musket of 
ours seen by an Arab might cost us our lives, as it would carry a hostile 
appearance at least, and that in our warmth we might be led to make an 
improper use of our weapons. They at last pleaded for a pistol. I, 
however, buried the whole, and laid a stone over the place. 

By this time the man from the mountains made his appearance, coming 
along shore from the eastward, and when he joined us we were nearly 
ready for a march: we all stopped our business to hear his story. He said 
he had traveled at least fifty miles, had ascended the mountain, but had 
made no discovery of much consequence. He made ahearty breakfast while 
one of his shipmates was fixing a knapsack for him. 

During all the time the arrangement was making I was left ignorant 
as to what part of the luggage I should carry myself. The sailors had 
agreed among themselves that I should walk unencumbered, and that my 
part of the burden should be borne by them. When informed of this, I 
concluded to carry my spyglass and umbrella, and a copper teakettle 
full of water to be used first, and some chocolate and sugar in my pockets, 
to use in case we should be so fortunate as to find water on our journey. 
When it was announced that we were all ready for a march, I changed 
my clothes, put on a pair of fine worsted stockings, a pair of new corduroy 
pantaloons, a pair of new half boots, a new linen shirt and neck handker¬ 
chief, a silk vest, a nearly new superfine broadcloth coat, and a new beaver 
hat; a gold watch I took along with me, and also put in my pocket gold 
of the value of 600 dollars. This done, I called my men to me, and gave 
them the remainder of my clothing. Black man Jack had previously 
taken some fine shirts into his pack for me, which he did without my 
knowledge or direction. When they had all helped themselves with the 
best of my clothing left in the trunk, they discovered two pieces of tabinet 
in the bottom of it, and asking me what it was, I told them it was two 
gown-patterns which I had bought in Ireland for my wife, and that it was 
best to let it alone, for they had luggage enough already. Jack, who was 
at a little distance from the trunk, on discovering the matter we were 
talking about, rushed forward, and got hold of the pieces, saying, “ Master , 
my mistress shall wear these gowns yet .” I told him he had already too 
much to carry, and that his mistress would never see those patterns. 
“She shall, master, depend on it,” replied Jack, “they are too pretty 
to leave here;” —and he packed them up. Little did I then think my wife 
would ever see either of those pieces; but she did, and that same tabinet 
she has occasionally worn to this day. When nearly ready for a start, 
my mate wrote up the log-book and I finished my journal; corn was put 
in the place for the hog to eat, and water to drink. All things were now 
prepared, and we on the point of moving, when one of the sailors said, 
“Let us depart under flying colors;” the others joined him, and we were 
detained till they had erected a pole on the hill, and hoisted a very 
handsome ensign. 

At about ten o’clock, we started on our march. After a fatiguing walk 
of two hours, over a deep road in one of the valleys, we all sat down to 
rest ourselves. I took that opportunity to furnish every man with one 
and the same story to tell in case we should be separated. This I thought 


70 BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 

necessary, because contradictory accounts given by us would be likely to 
expose us to greater sufferings than we might have to endure if the stories 
of us all should prove consistent with each other. Accordingly we agreed 
to say that the ship was the Oswego, of Liverpool, bound from Cork to 
the Cape de Yerd islands after a load of salt, and from thence to New 
York: and to give our names as they were, and all call ourselves English¬ 
men. I told them the reasons for substituting Liverpool for New York as 
the home of our ship, and for calling ourselves Englishmen instead of 
Americans, were, that the English had a considerable trade on that coast, 
particularly at Mogadore; that some of their ships I had known to have 
loaded at St. Cruz; that I never had heard of but one American vessel 
trading there; that, without doubt, the English had a consul both at St. 
Cruz and Mogadore, and perhaps at other places on the coast. Moreover, 
I enjoined it upon them, in case of separation, that it should be the study 
of every one to learn the language of those we should fall among, to 
give notice to any Christian when an opportunity offered for the safety 
of the whole. I cannot but think the English reader, considering the 
forlorn condition I was in, will excuse my claiming the protection of his 
flag, by assuming a false national name. 

We dined on dry bread. One of our sailors having a leg of boiled salt 
pork, I persuaded him to throw it away, as it would increase his thirst. 
We each took from the copper teakettle a small tumbler of water, which 
we had already begun to know the value of. About two o’clock we began 
our march eastward on the hard sand; and traveled till after sunset, when 
we had a quiet sleep till morning. On the third day’s march, and for some 
reason which I do not recollect, one man and myself were left a little 
behind, or did not start with the rest; they were a quarter of a mile 
ahead when we started. The man was the same one who had been sent 
to view the Cape which we had taken for Nun. We did not take their 
track, but to shorten the distance, went a little northward. About fifty 
yards from some uninhabited cabins he saw a pile of human bones on our 
left, and exclaimed, “O Lord protect us; look at these bones! now do 
you believe I saw human bones at the Cape?” We stopped only for a 
minute, when, within ten feet of us, there was a pile of human bones. 
Having but an imperfect view of them, I can only say there were many; 
to speak safely, 1 should think as many as could be contained in a hogs¬ 
head. Yet, considering the agitation of mind I was in, it would be 
nothing strange if the quantity were three times as great, or but half so 
great as it appeared to me. 

Our men were still at some distance ahead, which gave to us two an 
opportunity to converse together concerning that and other things which we 
had seen. He told me he had not mentioned what he had seen at the Cape 
to any one but myself, and that his opinion as to the cause of the bones 
being there was not altered; “and now,” said he, “this is, to my mind, 
a confirmation of the fact that we are among cannibals, as in several places 
about these huts there have been fires, but not recently.” Our distance 
from the ship, by calculation, was now fifty miles. We soon fell into a 
quiet sleep, and were awoke by nothing else but the changing of the 
watch. It so happened that Pat and the Dane were on the watch; those 
two who had done us so much injury, and, in the opinion of several at 
least, prevented us from getting away in our boat, by their being drunk 
and asleep when we were discovered by the two Arabs spoken of before, 
who otherwise might have been secured. At the dawn, on the eighth, we 
were awakened by an unusual noise, which started the whole crew. The 


PAT’S CASE APPEARS DESPERATE. 


71 

cause of it was soon obvious enough; the two watchmen were quarrelling 
about the other drink. Strange as it may appear, Pat had carried a bottle 
of gin in his pack, which, on a former examination, had passed very well 
for water, the color being the same; all along until this time those watch- 
mates were equally concerned in the fraud. Pat was now too drunk to 
stand; the other not so drunk, and his story we got, which was as follows. 
—When they robbed the case on the beach, they put away in the sand 
one bottle, over and above what they had drank, and when we filled our 
packs at the ship, he (the Dane) managed it so as to put that bottle in Pat’s 
knapsack, and Pat promised to keep it until we should arrive at a place 
where we might drink plenty of water, and while on this watch, Pat said 
they could finish it without being discovered. They opened the pack (a 
deed which had never been allowed except all were present) and took out 
the gin, and along with it a bottle of water, and sipped out of each awhile; 
so thirsty they were in sipping, in about equal portions, that Pat finished 
the water, and they then took out another bottle of water. By this time the 
operation of the gin was so powerful that Pat challenged the whole to 
himself. A battle ensued; and, in their struggle for the gin, they overset 
the half-packed knapsack on the rocks, and broke several bottles: the 
noise that this made awoke us all. Judge of our consternation, having 
before this not the least idea of any liquor being in our camp. 

Pat was very drunk: the Dane said he had advised him not to take the 
bottle out at that time, but to wait till we should find water; but Pat in¬ 
sisted that the gin was his, and he would take a drink, and give him one, 
and then put it up again; that the taste of the gin created thirst, which 
before was very severe, and was what tempted them to steal a little water, 
intending himself to drink only a little, and then put all away again; that 
Pat swore he would finish it, and drink as much as he had a mind to; 
and that when remonstrance was in vain, he (the Dane) thought he would 
drink too, but declared he was very sorry for it. Our men were so exas¬ 
perated, I did believe if I had not been there Pat would have been stoned 
to death, and that there was not one of them but would have been willing 
to cast the first stone. This was the second grand offense; and they all 
declared it was more than ought to be borne by human beings. I was 
left alone to plead Pat’s cause; and it was merely to save his life that I 
did it, for I confess my feelings were wrought up to a high pitch against 
that most unprincipled and unfeeling rascal: yet if any violence had been 
done him, I should have been censured by the community as the supposed 
cause of it. Had I been otherwise situated with the crew, or in the same 
situation as the rest of them, it is very probable that Pat would have fared 
badly, but not worse than his deserts. Pat was too drunk to stand, and 
after waiting an hour for him to come to himself, a motion was made at 
last, and carried without a dissenting voice, to take away what little of 
water and bread there was left in his knapsack, and march off and leave 
him. I then proposed to them to leave him his share of each; but being 
overpowered by numbers, we took our departure, and left the poor object 
lying on the ground to die a martyr to gin. We had proceeded not more 
than a quarter of a mile when I prevailed on them to stop, and one of 
them returned back with me, and we took him up, one under each arm, and 
lugged him along to our company, whose wrathful dispositions toward 
him were not in the least abated. I told them it would be less cruel to 
murder him on the spot than to leave him to linger out his but few days 
in misery. They remained inflexible: whereupon one of them gave me a 
part of his history, which they had had from himself on the passage, a 


BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 


72 

little before we were wrecked; this was it:—In 1799, and the begin¬ 
ning of 1800, he commanded a company, consisting of those who were 
called the Insurgents; he boasted of having destroyed, by cutting their 
throats, a number who adhered to the king’s party; that at one time, he 
and his company, in a dark night, murdered indiscriminately a number 

of persons whom they had caught in a house, “and-them,” he said, “I 

would have done more had I had it in my power;” these murderous deeds 
he had committed in the neighborhood of Wexford, in Ireland. 

When this horrid tale was ended, they said, this fellow deserves all the 
punishment that we can inflict upon him; and at the same time the coun¬ 
tenance of every man of them was, on that occasion, so clearly marked 
with revenge, that I thought Pat’s case was desperate. He by this time 
was able to walk. All this morning had been lost to us, and what was 
more to be lamented, was the loss of a great part of our water; we, how¬ 
ever, commenced our march, keeping near to the foot of the mountain. 
On this morning I heard more murmuring among our men than all of it 
put together that had been since our landing; and the whole of this, as I 
thought, was to be attributed to Pat’s conduct. After dragging along very 
slowly till noon, and seeing several fresh tracks on the sand, all heading 
westward as before, we became more and more in fear of meeting the 
natives, and ascended to the top of a sand hill to take some little refresh¬ 
ment, and to look out for travelers, the weather being extremely hot, with 
a very light breeze. We ate a little bread, and drank but a little water; 
so great was our thirst the appetite craved but little food. Every moment 
discovered more discontent; and, with a view to get a return of harmony 
in our little camp, so much disturbed the night before, I proposed for us 
all to take a nap. It was agreed to: I then had the handle of my umbrella 
stuck into the sand, and as it was large it served as a canopy for the heads 
of five or six of us. The most of them fell asleep in a few minutes. My 
own anxiety was too great for me even to slumber. I lay till two o’clock, 
and then awoke them, who appeared all to have been refreshed. 

The first object with me was to prepare and march forward; but there 
Tppeared a kind of backwardness to making preparations for our departure, 
such as had been uncommon in like cases, and it was attended with in- 
listinct murmuring. I had not the least conception of the cause, till a 
ittle hurrying on to his work of one of the leaders in it—the same man 
/ho had been spokesman in the affair of cutting away the masts, getting 
tway the long-boat, etc. He looked me full in the face, and with an 
udible voice spoke to me these words, as near as I can recollect: “We 
',ave been now three days since leaving the wreck; we get along very 
low, and in a very few days our water will all be spent, and then it will 

• e too late to go back to the wreck where there is plenty of it, and we are 
'etermined to go no further.” 

One of the men observed to me, that if he could only find a living 
pring of cool water, he should be willing to lie down by it and die there 

• ith hunger; that the value of water he had never known before. Another 
aid, in any other case he would be willing to follow me; but as it now 
. as, he could not consent to go another step, and die in the burning 

: mds, which were almost insufferable to his feet. After spending a whole 
i our in this most painful of all debates, they, nearly all as one, were 
. greed to go back to the place where there was plenty of water, and take 
rnir chance of what might follow. Whereupon I advised them all to go 
ick, and in case the natives were not come down, to use every exertion 
o repair the boat to be ready for sailing; and I said to them that I would 



ATTACKED AND ROBBED BY THE ARABS. 


73 

go on myself, and if I should find people friendly to us, I had money 
enough to hire camels, and would send for them. No sooner was this 
said than the black man Jack (who had been sitting silent before) said to 
me, “Master, if you go on, I will ge too.” That was settled. I thought 
we could travel to St. Cruz in five days at furthest. Every pack was 
opened for making a division of the water; the rest all agreeing that we 
should take a larger proportion than themselves. At that moment Sam, 
the other black man, said, “If you go, Jack, I too will go.” That being 
settled, we proceeded on in making the division of water; bread seeming 
scarcely thought of, so thirsty were we all. When the bottles were ail 
counted, there appeared only two bottles and a half to a man, which showed 
that nearly half had been destroyed or lost. Before the division or appor¬ 
tionment of the water had been gone through with, Pat solicited permission 
to join me, which I then refused to grant him. Upon which, my mate 
took me aside, and observed to me, that if I would not take him along, he 
must surely suffer death; that they were so exasperated against him, that 
he (the mate) could not be able to prevent their taking away his life; that 
he knew what had been their standing with each other for some time, and 
was not willing to be implicated with others in the acts of violence that 
might be committed upon the body of that man. I now saw that poor 
Pat would be in a bad situation if I were to go off and leave him; and 
from that consideration alone was I induced to accept of his company. 

We parted at about five o’clock, and among my little company not a 
word was uttered for more than half an hour. About half past six I saw 
a movement ahead, and so sudden was my stop, that the man next behind 
me, not observing it, was near throwing me down. In a moment we were 
all huddled together. I said to them, Hide yourselves: men ahead! As 
we were veering off from the foot-path, those ahead saw us, and stopped; 
we were then about a quarter of a mile from each other. With my glass 
I saw them looking steadfastly at us. Their number appeared to us greater 
than it really was, and as we thought they were looking at us to ascertain 
our number, we placed ourselves in a situation to be counted by them. 
We stood in that hopeless situation for more than ten minutes, not knowing 
nor thinking what steps to take. Jack said to me, “Master, let us run.” 
I told him to stand still, for running would be useless, and I believed our 
enemies only wanted to know our strength in order to approach us. If 
you altar your position, said I, that may lead to our ruin; but if you will 
stand firm, I will go to them alone and know our fate. They were all agreed 
to do as I had bidden them. When I had advanced only a few paces, one 
of them called out, “If they kill you, what shall we do?” I only replied, 
be quiet. 

I now walked moderately toward these barbarians, with my umbrella under 
one arm, and the spyglass in my hand. The nearer I approached them, 
the more frightful they appeared, but I knew it could answer me no good 
purpose to stop. When I was within a hundred yards of them, they all, 
as with one motion, dropped their packs, hove off their outer garments, 
and made toward me in a swift run. As soon as they had come within a 
few yards, I held out my right hand in token of friendship. Of that they 
took no notice, but passed by me as swift as it could be possible for men 
to run. My poor shipmates stood motionless; and when the monsters 
were come near enough to grasp them, their attack began. While I was 
walking toward them, in a quick pace, I perceived my three companions 
were down on the ground, and the ferocious barbarians at work upon them 
with their daggers, which glittered in the sun. As they were passing by 


74 BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 

me I saw a dagger, or long knife, hung to each of their necks. While 
beholding the horrid sight of their attack, I could think of nothing else 
than that they were plunging their daggers to the hearts of my poor com¬ 
panions, whose groans and cries I distinctly heard. When I was come 
within thirty yards I stopped, and looked at them, with no other expectation 
but that my own turn would come next, after finishing the diabolical work 
they were then about. In that deplorable situation I remained for near a 
quarter of an hour, when, to my great surprise, they all arose on their 
feet; my men with their packs off, and half naked. I then called to my 
men, and asked them if they were wounded; they answered no. Upon 
which I was convinced their daggers were made use of in cutting away 
the straps that secured their knapsacks, which they did not know a quicker 
way to come at. 

Before they had paid any attention to me they ripped open the packs, 
each of them striving to have the greatest share in the spoil. Having 
accomplished this, one of them came within a few yards of myself, and 
stopped, and after viewing me very attentively, he walked partly round 
to get a side view. I could not perceive his motives for keeping that 
distance, as I had shown no signs of an intention to defend myself. We 
were both in those attitudes respecting each other, for a few minutes, 
and till one or two more of those frightful beings were making toward 
me with the like caution. Upon that he sprung at me, tiger-like; my 
watch chain, which was of gold, exciting his first attention. No sooner 
had he got hold of that than the others, seven in all, with the utmost fury 
seized hold of the watch, and partly turned the fob inside out; when one 
of them, with the dagger in his right hand, cut off the fob, and, through 
his great haste he, with the same stroke, cut my pantaloons. In a moment 
from this I was the undermost; the whole seven being upon me, each 
with his dagger drawn. The gold they soon found, and took it, pocket, 
and all. Being unacquainted with our dress, it took them longer, by ten 
times, to obtain the plunder found on me, than I should have been in 
giving it up: add to this, they tore and cut my clothes badly. All this 
time the spyglass and umbrella lay by me on the spot where I had drop¬ 
ped them at the beginning of their attack. After this mauling was gone 
through with, they let me up again, when one of them examined the spy¬ 
glass, and another the umbrella; thinking, I have no doubt, that this glass, 
which probably was the first thing of the kind they had ever seen, was a 
defensive weapon, and that made them so cautious about attacking me. 
They asked us many questions, which we did not understand, repeating 
over several times the same words, particularly the words Sapena ,, Rais, 
etc. These words we soon after found out the meaning of. Their figure, 
and ferocious look, to say nothing of their behavior, were as savage, 
and even exceeded in savageness, anything that I ever have read in 
narratives of voyages. 

After that dreadful trial was over, my burning thirst seemed more in¬ 
tolerable than before, and as the bottles of water that had been thrown 
out of our knapsacks were then lying on the ground, I took up one of 
them, drew the cork, drank it dry; and after that, my thirst being not yet 
quenched, I took up another, and had already drank two thirds of it, when 
one of those savage men ran to me, and struck the bottle from my mouth, ana 
it rolled so far away that I could not reach it again. During this sitting 
of theirs, they appeared to be consulting together as to what they should 
do with us. At length, about sunset, they came to us, and asked us many 
questions, wanting, as far as we could understand them, to know the 


CRUEL TREATMENT. 


75 

number of us. By making marks on the ground, we informed them that 
our number amounted to ten; not meaning for them to include ourselves 
in that number. They wished to know if the rest of our crew had guns; 
and by the shake of the head, we answered, they had not. Their next 
inquiry was of the place where lay our ship, which they called Saffina, 
or, at least, we understood it so. We pointed westward; and then pointing 
to me, they asked me if I were Rais, or Rice, which I understood to mean 
captain or master. As well as I could make myself understood, I answered 
their question in the affirmative. Finally, they inquired for money, and 
we endeavored to make them believe there was none in the ship. When 
they had gathered from us all this information, they talked with one another 
a few minutes, and then, as fast as they could, they gathered all the lug¬ 
gage together except the water, and made it up in the best manner the 
time would admit of, loaded it into our hackled knapsacks, and gave each 
of us a load. It was now the dusk of the evening, and we were, as we 
supposed, from fifty to sixty miles from the ship when they gave the word 
Bornar, which signifies, Go on. 

With the word Bomar there came a blow, and a push forward. They 
endeavored to get us on a run, and for that purpose beat us cruelly; it 
was cruel indeed to force us on faster than a moderate walk, extremely 
fatigued as we were when we started. My companions, to save me from 
those cruel beatings, managed it so as to fall into the rear in order to get 
me ahead, and so take the blows themselves; but the Arabs discovering 
that management, put a stop to it. Thus driven on, we continued to travel, 
as I should judge, till ten or eleven o’clock, when, through extreme fatigue, 
I fell on my face in ther sand, and no sooner did my companions see it, 
than they fell also; upon which our beating was increased to such a de¬ 
gree that I thought we should never rise more. After allowing us a short 
rest, it seemed that they meant to make up for lost time; the word Bomar 
was oftener repeated, followed, of course, with stripes. As that was the 
first time I had ever carried a pack, and as mine was heavier than any 
of the rest, the* endurance of the toil came harder, perhaps, to me than to 
my companions. Jack perceived it, and without my once complaining 
of the burden I was compelled to bear, he, having the lightest one, and 
being much the stoutest man, proposed to me that we should exchange 
packs. Accordingly we stopped for that purpose; but our drivers were 
as much bent against that arrangement as we were for it. Jack told them, 
by signs, that he was the stoutest man, but they insisted that we should 
go on as we were; and while that litigation was at the highest, we both 
dropped our packs, and the exchange was made by us, but not without 
our smarting under the lash. 

After this, they pushed us on again with all speed. We soon found 
out their object; six of our men being in sight on the plain about two 
miles off. We were goaded on by the two men who had us in their charge, 
and our thirst was so burning that we waddled along as fast as we could, 
in hopes of getting some water from our men. Those Arabs were within 
half a mile of our men before they were seen by them; they ran at least 
five times as fast we could get along. The moment our men saw them 
they stopped, expecting, from a view of their ferocious looks, and of the 
guns in their hands, that their own time was short; and having yet some 
water left, they drank every drop of it before the Arabs got hold of them. 
In an instant they were all down upon the ground, and thought themselves 
destined to slaughter; just as myself and my little company had thought 
of ourselves, when we were in the like circumstances. By the time they 


76 


BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 


were stripped of their treasure, and had got up, we were near them, when 
there was, with them, a general rejoicing; their seeing us alive givingthem 
hopes. As soon as we could be heard, we cried out for water, and beiug 
answered there was none, we dropped down, not thinking it possible for us 
to live. We lay groaning, and crying out for water, and at the same time 
our limbs were in excruciating pain from fatigue; the merciless barbarians 
then gave us what remained in the skin, which was not enough to wet 
our throats. At last they got us all ten together, which they (the Arabs) 
supposed, from what I had told them the day before, was our whole num¬ 
ber. It appeared from the story of my mates, that, upon parting with us. 
they had calculated to walk nearly all the night; that four of the men 
would not agree to that, as they had rather sleep, and therefore lay down 
for that purpose. The mates thought, that though we did not see nor 
hear each other, yet we must have been very near those four men about 
midnight. 

This matter being settled, the word Bomar sounded again in our ears; 
such melodious voices I never heard before nor since. I do not mean to 
be understood that their voices were charming as respected ourselves. 
We cried for water, they forced us up; we pointed to the ship, in hopes 
they would go there, and let us get along as fast as we could. It was now 
about noon; the sun beat down with such extreme heat that the sand was 
almost insufferable. We marched on, and saw nothing till we were on 
the hill, within fifty rods of the ship. Everything was taken away except 
our hog, which lay dead, and blasted, and noisome to the smell; shot, no 
doubt, by the Arabs, the very day we left the wreck. The yawl lay on the 
rocks, with her oars in her, just as she was left; the foresail was cut off 
as high up as a man could reach if standing on the bellfry. They 
must have passed off to her by swimming. While our captors were 
busying themselves with filling their skins with brackish water from an 
old well they had dug out of the bank, our four poor fellow-sufferers 
made their appearance on the hill. They looked down with astonish¬ 
ment, having had no knowledge of our bondage, nor of the Arabs being 
at that place. One of the Arabs got sight of them, and gave a yell. Up¬ 
ward of fifty of those ruffians ran up the hill, and took them down, 
and stripped them of their luggage. Those four were permitted to talk 
with us while we stayed, which was about half an hour. Poor fellows! 
they wept bitterly upon being told that we were to depart and leave them, 
with but little hopes of our ever seeing one another again in this world 
of trouble. At the sound of the word Bomar, we took of one another an 
affectionate leave, promising that whoever of us should happen to be 
redeemed from our bondage, he, or they, would endeavor to obtain the 
redemption of the rest. Not one of us, while continuing to breathe the 
breath of life, can yet have forgotten, or will ever forget, that trying 
moment. Poor Pat was reminded, before we parted, of his having been 
the cause of our distress. He was prudent enough to make no reply. 
At sunset the remaining ten of us, along with seven Arabs, ascended the 
hill again, and for the last time; but whither or where going, that was 
our first and deepest concern. 

After this they dispatched off one of their men, who took to the west¬ 
ward, on the run. Within about an hour he returned, and another along 
with him, who had a camel. On the camel they loaded all the luggage, 
gave out the word Bomar, pointed eastward, and cried out, Sicearak. 
The word Bomar was very familiar to our ears; the word Swearah was 
new to us. They turned the camel eastward, which to us was a matter 


JOURNEY OVER THE DESERT. 


77 

of great joy, as that was the only direction from which we could derive 
any hope of relief. That sudden hope, or rather shadow of hope, infused 
in us such a general joy,that everyone seemed to show some considerable 
degree of animation; whereas we had been utterly dejected before. We 
continued our journey all that night. When the sun was about an hour 
high we made a halt in a valley formed by two sand-drifts. We were 
extremely tired, having walked all the night without sleep or rest. About 
ten o’clock, an Arab that had left us at daylight, joined us again, bringing 
with him about half a bushel of sweet berries, and a brute animal, such 
as we could not name. It was about the size of a half-grown goat; the 
head, skin, and legs, they took off immediately; after which they opened 
their game, quartered it, laid it on the sand, covered it over with hot sand, 
and made a fire upon it with some dry sticks. They reached the guts, 
just as they were, for us to eat. We were very hungry, but did not suffer 
so much from hunger as from thirst. This food being warm and moist, 
we chewed the guts, after sucking off the fat; little thinking it was to be 
our last meal for five days. The meat was soon cooked, and being in 
expectation of getting a share of it, we privately buried the remaining 
part of the guts in the sand. We begged earnestly for water, but they 
took no notice of it. After they had devoured their meal of meat and 
sand mixed up together, they hove us the bones, on the whole of which 
there was not a single ounce of meat. 

We then renewed our journey, traveling all day. Toward night we 
each of us got about one pint of the sweet berries ; they were about the 
seize of whortleberries, the stone or pit being in quantity full three-fourths 
of the whole. We ate them, stone and all, for the stones were not hard 
to our teeth. We dug for water, but found none. At dark we got about 
half a gill each of the water from the sack; that drink finished it, and we 
lay down. The Arabs tied up the left fore-leg of the camel, and let him 
go. As to feed, there was none. The night was very cold, the contrast 
there between night and day being very great. Jack and myself lay close 
to the man who had claimed us both, and when I thought him asleep, I 
softly hauled the blanket partly off him upon myself. The moment he 
missed it, he gave me a hard thump with his fist, and it was a long time 
before I got clear of the pain which the blow occasioned. Great as our 
sufferings were, sleep at last closed our eyes. 

On the morning of the eleventh, we were awoke at dawn of day by the 
Arabs at their prayers. Prayers being over, the camel that lay near us 
was loaded, and we were obliged to march, distressed as we were with 
hunger and thirst, and every one of us making the outcries of misery. 
One of our sailors discovered at that time that he had in his pocket a small 
potato, of the size of a large walnut; half of that he privately gave me, 
and I thought nothing ever tasted to me more pleasant. After marching 
a short time, the leader, my master, called out, Umbar — sit down. We 
soon obeyed, and when seated, they took a little meal which had been 
concealed from our view, and ate it. We expected some small share, but 
got none. My master looked very sternly at me: at that moment he got 
sight of my sleeve-buttons, and caught me by the wrist. I saw what he 
was after, and gave them up as soon as I could unbutton my sleeves. 
Till this time I had not been deprived of any of my wearing apparel, 
except what was in my sailor’s packs. He then ordered me to strip, and 
necessity obliged me to comply. My coat, waistcoat, shirt, and neck 
handkerchief, were taken from me, and laid by his side. I begged hard 
f > r ray clothes, or some part of them, but to no effect: the piece of bread 


78 


BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 


happened to be in the pocket of my pantaloons. Soon after this a general 
search of us took place. My fine shirts, which the sailors had on them, 
were all taken away; whereas those who fortunately had only their own 
shirts on, which were coarser, and some of them not white, were permitted 
to wear them. After this business was over, we re-commenced our march, 
my clothes lying upon the back of the camel. At that time I was eating 
my biscuit, or rather grinding it to powder between my teeth; in fact, 
the power of swallowing was lost to me. This was the first time I ever 
had in my mouth any food which I could not, after chewing it, convey to 
my stomach; now I found it could not be done for the want of fluid or 
moisture in my mouth and throat. My mouth was so parched up that the 
biscuit could render me no service ; not the least morsel found its way 
down; every particle was discharged, or blown from the mouth, whenever 
the upper and lower jaw opened. 

As soon as the burning sun had retired a little behind the mountains 
of sand, we were spurred on with greater haste. When it had sunk be¬ 
neath the horizon, the fresh wind cooled the earth, which became even 
cold before dark. Negro Sam, as he was walking by my side, asked me 
if I was cold. I told him I was. He then took off his blue jacket, and 
reached it to me, and I put it on. After this he complained to his master 
that he was cold ; whereupon his master came to me in anger, probably 
thinking that I had taken the jacket from Sam by demanding it of him. 
Sam made him understand that I was not to suffer. He (the Arab) then 
gave Sam my coat, and when it was quite dark we exchanged coats, and 
I got my own again. This evening’s walk was worse than anything we 
had before experienced. About nine o’clock, we all ascended a mountain, 
I should suppose from two to three hundred feet high, over craggy rocks; 

* at every step our joints seemed to be dislocating. When we were on 
the top of the mountain, the Arabs called out, Shrub bezef. We knew 
that shrub was water, and concluded that bezef was plenty. That sound 
cheered us all. The camel, which on our march was always driven ahead, 
started off at full trot, and all the Arabs after him, except one, who brought 
up our rear. The descent of this mountain was ten times worse than the 
ascent; our feet slipping or giving way at almost every step, it being too 
dark to pick our road. We found it, indeed, almost too much to be borne, 
and nothing but the hopes of finding water could have kept us from sinking 
under our troubles and sufferings. 

When we were nearly half way down the mountain, we began to smell 
something, which could be compared to nothing I could think of but bilge 
water in the hold of a ship; the nearer we approached it, the stronger 
was the smell. Before we had come to the water, the camel had drank 
of it, as also had all the Arabs except' the one in our rear, who, taking a 
wooden bowl from one of his companions, dipped up the water and drank 
it. From him I took the bowl, dipped it full, and drank every drop. My 
mates being by my side, called out, “ Captain, you will kill yourself!” 
The bowl contained at least a gallon, and some said five quarts. Several 
others of us drank as much as I did myself. The reader may be astonished 
at our taking down such a quantity at a draught, and much more so, when 
he is informed that the water was so putrid that the smell of it reached 
from a quarter to half a mile ; and that when drinking it, we found it as 
thick as common gruel used in sickness. After all the rest of us had 
been satisfied^ I took another drink, of at least a quart, and then some 
others, if not all, mended their draught; when we all lay down by the 
side of the pond, and slept finely; I think I never enjoyed a finer night’s 


JOY AT MEETING A WHITE MAN. 


79 

sleep in all my life. This day’s travel we computed at thirty-five miles. 
One of our men, who had been used to driving a team, thought pur cal¬ 
culation was moderate. 

At dawn of day, on the twelfth, we were awoke, as usual, by the voices 
of the Arabs saying their prayers. When these were over, they began 
to load the camel, which appeared almost double the size he was of the 
preceding evening. He refused to drink this morning. Toward evening, 
we saw, for the first time, some small shrubs, appearing like our dwarf 
thorn bushes. The camel seized hold of the tops and little branches, 
which he ate with avidity; they were dry, so that in breaking them with 
our hands we could discover very little moisture within the bark. Such 
as they were, we chewed the twigs, but could not expect any sustenance 
from them. As soon as the camel had eaten what they thought proper, 
we were driven on again. The sun was hot, and we were near perishing, 
when on a sudden two of them started, and ran off in a north-eastern 
direction, we dragging ourselves along after them. As soon as they had 
ascended one of the hillocks, we discovered that they were much engaged, 
appearing to be gathering something from the face of the earth. We 
doubled our diligence, and soon came to the place, and, to our astonish¬ 
ment, we found about a quarter of an acre of ground thinly covered with 
barley in the milk, of about eighteen inches in height. The Arabs all 
fell to work to gather and eat; we followed their example, and the grain 
being full of milk, we were able in a few minutes to raise moisture enough 
in our mouths and throats to aid us in swallowing. 

The next two days of our miserable lives, were spent in traversing a 
desolate country, without food or water, and with a burning sun striking 
down upon our naked bodies. About noon of the fifteenth, upon our 
ascending a rising ground, we beheld, at no great distance, a large num¬ 
ber of tents, to which we were marched in apparent triumph. As soon as 
we had approached to within about a hundred yards of those tents, we 
were ordered to sit down, and were surrounded with men, women, and 
children, to the number of from seven hundred and fifty to a thousand. 
The crowd around us prevented all circulation of the air, so that we were 
nearly suffocated, and at the same time were ready to perish with thirst, 
and all begging for water, our masters being out of sight. After suffering 
for half an hour in this horrid situation, we perceived a great bustle on 
the outside of the assembly that surrounded us, the cause of which we 
were not long at a loss for. The loud noise drew nearer and nearer to 
us, till, very soon, to our astonishment, we heard a voice inquiring in plain 
English, “Where are they? Where are they?” It was not a dream. 
A young man, once white, got through the crowd at last. It was an 
English youth of about nineteen, his skin deeply burnt with the sun, 
without hat or shoes, and his nakedness covered with only a few rags. 
The first words uttered to us by this frightful looking object were “Who 
are you? My friends! my friends!” the tears running down his cheeks. 
I would have risen to salute him, but was too feeble. He sat down by 
my side; we all shook hands with him, and began our conversation. We 
told him who we were, and he in return gave us an account of himself; 
the Arabs meanwhile interrupting him every now and then, to get our 
tale of him. In turn, he satisfied them who had inquired of him where 
we were wrecked, how much money and goods we had on board, where 
it was now, how much those mountaineers (as they called our owners) 
had got, and so on. George, for that was his name, freely informed us 
as to himself, that he was the steward of a ship called the Martin Hall. 


80 


BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 


of London, cast away upon that coast more than a year before; that one 
of the crew was killed by the natives, and the captain he supposed was 
drowned; that part of the crew had been marched back,'in a south-east 
direction, to a place they called Elic ; that another part had been carried 
to Swearah, and there ransomed ; that four of them yet remained among 
the wandering Arabs, who had been very cruel to them; that none of 
them but himself belonged to the tribe he was in; that two boys were 
not far off; one other boy he had not heard from lately, but believed he 
was distant not many days’ march. “ This,” said George, “is all I can 
tell you about our poor unfortunate crew, but I have no doubt that some 
of them have been murdered, for I heard they did not find a ready sale 
for all that were carried to Elic, and that our sailors became turbulent 
there, and a quarrel ensued ; the Arabs themselves acknowledged that 
several of our men were wounded in the fray: but these cursed monsters 
will lie like dogs, and there is no believing them; what makes me think 
they were murdered, I have lately heard that some of their shoes and 
hats have been seen in that neighborhood.” This story of George excited 
our utmost attention, though it was frequently interrupted by the Arabs 
during the whole of the time. 

Hitherto not a drop had been given us to drink, and George now told 
the Arabs that we were suffering with thirst; but it only made them laugh. 
Upon this, he started on through the crowd, and brought us about two 
quarts of milk and water. This we divided, I believe very equally, by 
v each of us sipping a little, and then reaching it to his next neighbor. 
That delicious beverage occasioned such warm expressions of gratitude 
as I had never heard before; each of us, in his own style, ejaculating his 
thanks to poor George, and then to our Father in heaven. Though the 
quantity was small, still, by taking it in that way, every drop felt in our 
famished stomachs as a cordial. No sooner had the inquisitive Arabs 
drawn off from us, than I inquired of George where Swearah was? He 
said he never could learn, the Arabs having always evaded answering that 
inquiry, and seemed angry whenever he put the question to them ; but he 
believed it was Mogadore. He then asked me about the coast where the 
English had their trade ; observing to me that some of the Arabs often 
journeyed eastward, and after an absence of two or three weeks, returned 
with certain English manufactures, such as combs, loooking-glasses, beads, 
scissors, knives, powder, guns, and so on. I replied, as St. Cruz was 
nearer, and a port where a trade was carried on by European nations, I 
rather thought that that must be Swearah. He said he had never heard 
them so much as name St. Cruz ; and I answered it was the Portuguese 
name, and, by inquiring, he might find out what the Arabic name was. 
George appeared very much delighted with our company, and no doubt 
had hopes that we might be the means of his ransom from slavery. 
Speaking of the ones who then had us in their keeping, he said to me, 
“These fellows do not belong here to our tribe,nor anywhere hereabouts; 
they were here about ten or twelve days ago ; I remember them very well; 
they got supper here, and went off the next day, traveling westward; they 
are hunters, and poor dogs, depend upon it. I will find out where they 
belong, and let you know. Come,” he says, “let us go to the tents, and 
I will beg some meal and water for you; and, if my old master will let 
me stay with you till night, I shall be glad. I was watching his flock, 
and when you had arrived, he sent for me, and put some one else there 
in my place.” We all rose up, and on our approaching the tents, George 
called out, “There is our chief! he has been gone these three weeks, and 


INTERVIEW WITH AHAMED. 


81 

I suspect he is from Swearah.” He (the chief) came hastily to us, and 
inquired who we were ; and was told by George that he and ourselves 
were all brothers. The old man looked smilingly on this occasion, and 
George told him we were suffering for victuals. He replied, “They shall 
have some boiled meal directly. 1 ’ By this time the whole male part of 
the tribe were assembled round their chief; and George, understanding 
the Arabic, learned from what was said, that he was from Swearah. After 
George had collected from his master all the information he could upon 
that subject, he told us the men that were our enslavers were hunters; 
that they belonged to a degraded tribe of Arabs, distant four days’ journey, 
pointing to the south-east, and about one day’s journey from Elic ; and 
that they were about to start off the next morning for their home, and take 
us along with them. We all as one declared ourselves unable to go further, 
and that we had rather die on the spot than attempt to advance another 
step. I told George that when these hunters had first found us they 
appeared to have made up their minds to put us to death, or at least 
showed signs of such an intention, by re-priming their guns, etc. At that 
moment the hunters w T ere engaged in conversation with many of the tribe, 
and George, to satisfy himself as to that matter, went and spoke with 
them about it. The old man, who appeared to be the head one of the 
gang, acknowledged that at the time of plundering us, it was their intention 
to destroy our lives, but, on reconsideration, he said to them they had 
better let us live, in order that we might pilot them to our wreck, and 
after that they could dispose of us as best suited them. 

By this time the chief, whose name was Ahamed, and who had been 
engaged elsewhere for some time, came to see us again, bringing with 
him another English boy, named Jack; he was about thirteen or fourteen 
years old, covered with rags and vermin; he spoke the Arabic perfectly. 
We talked to the chief through him as an interpreter, for a short time, 
and then, having found that I was what they called Rais, he took me and 
Jack away to a little distance from all the rest of the company, in order 
to find out where we had buried our money and goods. Upon my telling 
him that we had neither, he refused to believe it. I told him our ship 
was bound for the Cape de Verds for a load of salt; that that article was 
very cheap there ; that what money those hunters had taken from us was 
sufficient for purchasing a load for our ship. This story of mine he 
seemed not to believe ; he thought that all ships carried either money or 
goods, or both, and he had learned from the hunters who brought us on, 
that the Arabs at the ship found nothing in her but sand. The sand I 
told him was ballast, and that a ship could not sail without ballast. Neither 
did he believe that. He then said, if I would tell him where our money 
was he would buy us all of these men, and feed us well at his tent; and 
after the tribe’s leaving the wreck, which would be shortly, as he judged 
from having learned that they would soon burn her for the sake of her iron; 
that then he would go down and take away the buried treasure, and return 
and carry us to Swearah. I judged it most prudent to persist in my first 
story, thinking if I should tell him there was money in a beef barrel, it 
could do us no good, but probably harm, as it might have led off this 
chief, and one of us with him perhaps, to the wreck, when, in all proba¬ 
bility, he would find her in ashes. When we were about parting, it being 
then in the evening, I entreated him to buy us all, and told him he would 
be well paid for all his expense and trouble. 

I returned to the place our men were at, where I found Larra a fine 
mulatto boy, one that George had spoken to me about, aged nearly sixteen 
6 


82 


BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 


years. He understood about as much Arabic as George, but neither of 
them near as much as Jack. He, Jack, (said the two other boys to me,) 
always joins with the Arabs in their prayers, and is more an Arab than a 
Christian, and you must be guarded against him, for he is a little treache¬ 
rous lying rascal, and ever prefers the company of these devils here to 
ours, and has made mischief among us, and if he and ourselves quarrel 
together, they always take Jack’s part, and that makes him the more saucy. 
I was glad to find out Jack’s character so early. George and Larra stayed 
with us till near midnight; by them I found that whenever the Arabs 
came home after their journeyings, they used to talk of Consul Gwyn, 
tasher Court, tasher Jackson, tasher Foxcroft, and others. The word 
tasker I concluded must mean merchant; and the proper names being 
English, I only wanted to know where Swearah was, to make out a story 
that might carry with it some marks of truth. 

Before we got a delicious breakfast, we were visited by most of the 
tribe, who made their observations concerning our worth, rating some of 
us at something considerable, and others at nothing at all, but concluded 
that we were of no great value taken altogether. On the contrary, the 
men that had us for sale praised us up, saying we were as good as any 
Christian dogs they had ever seen. Some time about ten o’clock next 
morning, George and Larra who had been every moment watching 
the motions of the Arabs, came in haste, to inform us we were all for 
sale, and that some were actually sold ; observing that Rais and the 
blacks, as well as several others, remained unsold, their price being too 
high. Larra entreated me to go to their sale and plead for myself, and 
mentioned that boy Jack had a great deal to say about us there. I thought 
it best, however, to remain quiet awhile. He (Larra ) continued begging 
me to go, and said if I were to be carried off, there would be no chance 
of a ransom for George and himself. After the sale was partly, or 
mostly gone through with, Ahamed came to me, bringing Jack along with 
him, as an interpreter, and taking me aside, he asked me if I had any 
friend in Swearah? I told him I had a number of friends there. “Have 
you,” said he, “ever been there yourself?” I answered, Yes. “Who do 
you know there ?” I answered Consul Gwyn, and a number of merchants, 
Court, Jackson, Foxcroft, and some others, English, French, and Spaniards. 
“What sort of a man is Consul Gwyn ?” said he to me. Being determined 
to make no mistake, I answered generally, he is a good man. This vague 
answer did not satisfy him, and he told me I must describe him. As 1 
thought our all depended upon my correctness in this particular, I felt 
embarrassed, and he discovered my embarrassment; when, collecting 
myself a little, I told him it was some years since I had seen the Consul, 
but, according to the best of my recollection, he was about my own height, 
but rather fatter. Turning to Jack, he says, “That is all right,” and 
locking his fingers together, off at a distance from his own, he says, 
“His belly is so big.” This fiction of mine Jack believed as much as 
Ahamed. 

Ahamed then asked me what I would give him over and above what 
the Consul would give, if he should buy me? I answered, if he would buy 
us all, and then set his price, I would think on it. Upon this he said to 
me, “The mountaineers will not sell the blacks at any price, for they are 
as good travelers as themselves; they are men that you Christian dogs 
have taken from the Guinea country, a climate that suits them best, and 
you were going there to get more of them, and are worse than the Arabs, 
who enslave you only when it is God’s will to send you on our coast.” 


PADDOCK AGREES TO PURCHASE HIMSELF. 


83 

Never, I must confess, did I feel a reproach more sensibly—that a great 
many wearing the Christian name did force away from their homes, and 
carry into perpetual slavery, the poor African negroes, and thereby made 
themselves worse than Arabs, I well knew was but too true. However, 
standing on my own defense, I said, in reply, that was not our business: 
to which boy Jack answered, “It was our business and in that he spoke 
the truth, for the ship he belonged to was engaged in the Guinea trade. 

The chief demanded of me again, that I should say how much I would 
give him ; but at last he set the price himself, by counting over his fingers 
till he came to the number forty. I was at a loss to know what it signified, 
when Jack told me he supposed it meant dollars. I agreed to it, and that, 
in addition to the sum mentioned, I would give each of his two wives a 
looking-glass, comb, beads, and some other things. The next thing with 
him was the security. I told him my word was sufficient, and that I had no 
other security to give. He then asked Jack in what manner a Christian 
took aiuoath? It was some time before Jack understood the question, 
and not until he was told by him that a Mohammedan swore by his own 
heard ; and by the prophet. Jack then said to him, “A Christian swears 
by the Bible, and that oath he holds inviolable.” Jack went on to compare 
the Bible to the Alcoran. As no Bible was to be come at, I told him I 
could make oath as well without the Bible as with it; and this satisfying 
him, I then, with an audible voice, called my Maker to witness, that as 
soon as we should be ransomed in Swearah, I would, in addition to what 
the Consul should pay for our ransom, give him forty dollars, and for his 
two wives two small looking-glasses, two combs, two pair of small scissors, 
each a large bunch of beads, and a knife for himself, and as much tobacco 
as he could smoke all the way back. When this was gone through with, 
he asked Jack if he believed me. He told him our God was the same as 
his God, and he might depend on my oath being held as sacred by me, 
as his own oath would be held by himself. Thus the matter ended, after 
we had been detained about it for a full hour. Ahamed then went to the 
mountaineers, and finished the bargain for us all, except the two blacks, 
for they would not part with them. How the purchase was paid, or in 
what, we never could find out. This evening the boy Jack paid us a 
short visit, when Larra advised him to be more with us, and not keep 
company so much with the Arabs. To this Jack replied, he could have 
as much meal as he wanted while with them, and that he, Larra, was 
always quarreling whenever he was with him. Larra now saw the ne¬ 
cessity of courting his friendship. Whenever they two talked together 
about London, Jack used to reproach his own mother there, telling Larra 
that she was a bad woman, and he did not wish ever to see her again. 
All this I thought made against us, as it gave room to mistrust Jack of 
being inclined to the side of the Arabs ; I therefore urged upon both of 
them the necessity of their harmonizing for our general safety and 
welfare. 

On the eighteenth, in the morning, there appeared an uncommon stir 
in the tribe. The horses were brought up, and rigged out in great style; 
all was glee, male and female running from tent to tent; our English 
boys were in as great surprise as ourselves. For the sake of information, 
Larra and George went after Jack, who of course was knowing to the 
cause of this great muster. Jack was not to be found then, but soon after 
the little villain came, and informed us there was to be a wedding that 
day: this quieted our minds. Upon this time he and Larra fell into 
familiar discourse between themselves as follows. 


BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 


34 

Jack. You, Larra, know Afdallah, that fellow that murdered his wife 
about two weeks ago. 

Larra. Oh, yes, I remember all about it. 

Jack. Well, he is going to marry that short, thick, yellow girl, that lives 
in that tent there; you know who I mean. 

Larra. Oh, yes, I know her. 

This conversation between the two boys, excited in me a curiosity to 
know the story of that murder, and Larra related it to me. “About two 
weeks ago,” said Larra to me, “ this fellow went into his tent, and asked 
his wife where his knife was. She told him she had lent it to such a one, 
naming a man belonging to the tribe. Do you not know, he said, that 
you have no business to meddle with anything belonging to me? She 
acknowledged she had not; that she was sorry if it had displeased him, 
and would go immediately and fetch the knife back. He made no other 
reply to her than by saying, I will see if I cannot have a wife who will 
obey my commands better ; 1 always told you not to meddle with anything 
of rpine. Having a club in his hand, he struck her upon the breast; she 
fell, and he continued to maul her as long as there was any breath in her 
body. Neither man nor woman went near them, although her cries and 
screams were heard through the whole tribe. That evening,” continued 
Larra, “we went to the funeral, and observed what was done there. The 
women measured her length, her breadth across her arms, and her whole 
thickness, with as much exactness as they could, and then they dug a 
grave to fit her, digging it no deeper than the measure of her breadth, 
and put her in sideways, all naked ; then the women, standing upon the 
body, trod it down with their feet, till the upper part of it was just level 
with the surface of the earth; after which, they all fell to gathering stones 
to cover the body with, so as to prevent its being removed by the wild 
beasts.” 

I asked Larra what followed in regard to the murderer. The account 
he gave me was this:—“The next day after the murder was committed, 
the chief assembled all the principal men of the tribe to examine into the 
case. The murderer was called before the council, and heard in his own 
defense ; he voluntarily related the facts as they were, and was then dis¬ 
missed for a few minutes. Upon this, the chief, who always speaks first 
in such cases, gave his opinion. “Afdallah,” says Ahamed to his coun¬ 
selors, “has not acted agreeably to the law ; he should first have com¬ 
plained to me of the disobedience of his wife, and if she should persist 
therein, he would then have been at liberty to punish her according to his 
pleasure. For breaking the law in not making his complaint beforehand 
to me, he is worthy of punishment; wherefore, my sentence is, that he be 
fined four sheep, seeing his flock is small, and that those sheep be dressed 
for our supper to,-night.” Larra added, “the murderer was sent for, his 
sentence was pronounced, and he, without uttering a word, had his flock 
brought up, killed the four sheep, and the company ate them—and we, 
you know,” added he, addressing himself to Jack, “got the heads.” After 
Larra had gone through with his story, I desired him to look out for the 
bride and the bridegroom. He went to the place where the tribe was 
assembled, a few rods south of our tent, where he found the women pre¬ 
preparing the bride for her nuptials: and soon after they all made their 
appearance. We then walked toward the crowd, taking a circuit round 
their rear, full as nigh them as it was prudent for us to approach. The 
couple stopped, fronting a man who officiated in the capacity of a priest; 
he read over to them a passage engraved on a board, taken originally from 


A WEDDING IN THE DESERT. 


85 


the Alcoran, and joined their hands, using a ceremony of words that we 
could not distinctly hear, by which pronounced them husband and wife. 

A tent had been previously prepared by the bridegroom; on it was dis¬ 
played a white flag or fly ; he took his bride, who had been blindfolded 
by the priest, with a piece of cloth tied over her eyes, led her to his tent, 
sat her down on a mat, and said to her, “You are at home.” Then he 
left her, and returned to the place where the ceremony was performed, 
and had a white cloth, in the form of a turban, tied round his head ; after 
which he joined with the company, in their singing, shouting, and firing 
of guns; most of the company taking part in this merriment. When 
night came, the whole company went to his tent, but none of them entered 
it, not even himself; instead of which, they formed in a circle in the front 
of it, where was prepared a great feast, consisting of boiled meal and milk, 
along with several sheep, cooked and eaten without spice or salt. Their 
feasting continued till after midnight, when the company having retired, 
the bridegroom visits his spouse, takes off her blind, shows himself to her 
by the light of the fire, to satisfy her that there is no mistake as to the 
identity of his person, and then blinds her again, and retires. She con¬ 
tinues in this condition of utter darkness for the term of one week. During 
the whole of this week, after the first day, all the women that choose it 
visit her; one of their number is appointed to cook the victuals, and per¬ 
form all the other domestic duties, until the spouse is brought out to the 
light of day, when she beholds, as her husband, a capricious vagabond, 
and a bloody monster, for the least deviation from whose mandate she 
is liable to suffer death. 

On the morning of the 22d, Ahamed, and with him half a dozen of the 
tribe, came to our place of residence, and brought along about two yards 
of red flannel, and inquired if any one of us was a tailor? adding, we were 
to march on the next morning, and must make Jack some clothes. Over¬ 
joyed by that piece of information, we, by means of sending Jack for 
them among the tribe, were furnished with scissors, thread, and needles— 
not indeed equal to what are used at our tailors’ shops ; the thread was 
too large for the needle, but by singling it we made out with our sewing, 
though but badly. In a few hours, however, Jack was rigged up with a 
red jacket and trowsers ; but, unexpectedly to us, the little fellow despised 
them, and would rather have had his old rags again. The time now hung 
very heavy on us all, and we were wishing for to-morrow. Toward night 
we found out, for the first time, to whom in reality we severally belonged, 
and also discovered by Jack that we had often been bought and sold 
among them. As hitherto they had had no labor for us to perform, they 
had thought it immaterial whether we should know or not, how we were 
disposed of among themselves, or who of them in particular were our 
owners. It now appeared that we eight, together with the three English 
boys, were owned by about twenty of these Arabs; and as to myself, I 
perceived I was in the hands of the most unfeeling vagabond in the 
whole tribe. 

George, who had been occupied for several days past in keeping his 
master’s herds and flocks, came to us this evening, and told us his master 
had been uncommonly good to him for the last day or two ; and now, says 
he, I am to have as much meal for to-morrow as I can eat. We informed 
him that we were to march off for some place or other the next morning. 
That, said he, is a mistake, for my master told me you were to remain 
here several days, and that when you go, I shall go too. Poor George, 
however, was left behind. The next morning, to wit, the 23d, Ahamed 


86 BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 

told us we were to travel on to his field of grain, where he should be with 
us in a week’s time. On we went, and the only object we regretted 
parting with was hapless George ; him I pitied from my heart. 

We were already fancying ourselves half redeemed, when my new 
master began to let me know I must obey him in particular. He was one 
of the most ugly looking rascals among the whole tribe, and his conduct 
was no better than his looks. We had been traveling together all the 
day, before we could learn to which of them each of us belonged. I he 
difficulty of our learning it of them, was owing to their ignorance of arith¬ 
metic, and their inability to inform us that we had been disposed of in 
joint shares ; for instance, five of them owning three of us. As our 
course was northerly, we had hopes of soon seeing the seacoast. Late in 
the afternoon we came in sight of tents, which, as they were placed in a 
valley, we had approached near before we discovered them. We came 
toward them, undiscovered till within about a hundred yards, when we 
ail sat down on a sand hill, excepting our principal man, who was Ahamed’s 
brother, and he stood up for some time before any of the people of the 
tents perceived him. No sooner did they see him and us, than there 
seemed among them a great stir, which was made, no doubt, by their looking 
for their chief. Soon, however, there came to us a venerable looking old 
man, mostly dried up, who accosted our chief man thus:—“Where are 
you from? where bound? are these the Christian dogs I have heard so 
much of? what are you going to do with them?”—and so on. The answers 
were—“We are from the edge of the desert,” pointing south-west; “we 
belong to the tribe of Ahamed ; we are bound to such a place,” pointing 
north-east, “to cut our grain; these Christians that you see are going 
along with us, and when the harvest is over we shall make a market of 
them.” “All well,” says the old man, “come along with me and sup, and 
stay the night; you are welcome.” 

The venerable looking old Arab having pronounced his cordial invitation, 
on we marched ; and by this time the whole tribe was out, men, women, 
and children. They all, even the children, had something to say of us ; 
but we were now become so used to the scurrilous language of such 
people, that we paid no attention to it, but seated ourselves among their 
tents on the sand. We begged for water, having had but very little of it 
all that day, and our stock being now exhausted. We had eaten only 
once, if eating it may be called, for that meal consisted of a little raw 
barley-flour wet up pretty thin, so as to be drank rather than eaten; this 
we swilled down clean, and licked the bowl : the whole quantity for us 
eleven was what might be a full meal for one large pig. Our appetites 
were very keen, and this swill tasted good to us, and lay well on our 
stomachs, as did everything else that we had eaten or drank. Many a 
time, and even hundreds of times, had we cause to return thanks to God 
for this great blessing—a good appetite for whatever food or drink we 
could find, and a good digestion of it. 

Soon after we had made a stop at this place, the chief, and many of his 
tribe, formed a circle, and began their chat, accompanied with the pipe. 
When finding themselves short of tobacco, I heard my name, Rais , called 
aloud, and upon my looking toward them, the master of my mates made 
a sign to me that they had no tobacco, by putting his finger in the 
bowl of the pipe. This application was made to me in particular, because 
at the beginning of our journey, I had been appointed tobacco carrier. 
There was about a pound of tobacco, rolled up snug, and put in a small 
skin, about the size of a cat’s, and which was made in the manner of an 


THE ARABS OPINION OP CHRISTIANS. 


87 

old fashioned pouch; this I reached to him, and taking out as much of it 
as filled his pipe, he returned it to me. Their conversation was on gene¬ 
ral subjects. Larra, agreeably to the arrangement previously made 
between him and me, was listening to it, but could gather nothing of 
interest relative to our future destiny. Indeed they frequently spoke of 
us, but in such a manner as often reminded me of the old adage, Listeners 
seldom hear any good of themselves. That saying was verified here 
completely—the heads of their discourse concerning us were, that we 
were a poor, miserable, degraded race of mortals, doomed to the ever¬ 
lasting punishment of hell-fire after death, and in this life fit only for the 
company of dogs ; that our country was so wretchedly poor, we were 
always looking out abroad for sustenance; and ourselves so base as to go 
to the Coast of Guinea for slaves to cultivate our land, being not only too 
lazy to cultivate it ourselves, but too stupid to learn how to do it; and 
finally, that if all the Christians were obliged to live at home, their race 
would soon be extinct; that those belonging to Christian countries,being 
dependent on the other countries for almost everything necessary to sup¬ 
port nature»with,they make for sale such things as guns, powder, knives, 
and so on, all which the world might do well enough without; and then 
they barter these things away to people abroad for the necessaries of life. 

Upon the 24th, uncommonly early in the morning, we started away, in 
an east-north-east course, and traveled very fast for travelers in our 
condition. Before nine o’clock in the morning, we had become very 
thirsty, as well as hungry. We had taken along with us no water, and 
but little meal; and while we were begging for water, or for victuals,they 
snarled out to us, Cooly mackan, shrub mackan—no victuals, no drink— 
and hurried us along. By eleven o’clock, the heat of the sun was almost 
insufferable; we sat down only for a few minutes, and then were driven 
on again. We were fast approaching a rocky mountain lying on our right, 
appearing to be at least two hundred feet in height. We perceived where 
this mountain, seeming to have broken asunder, formed two separate hills, 
with a valley between them; and when we were at no great distance 
therefrom, some of the Arabs left us and ran ahead, while others were 
forcing us on as fast as possible. When we came abreast of this valley, 
to our astonishment we saw a reservoir of water, and the Arabs who had 
started ahead of us drinking at it. We soon got to it, and when came 
our own turn, which of course was the last, we drank no small quantity, 
and all of us sat down at our drinking place. The Arabs then mixed 
together some raw meal and water, and ate of it; after which they gave us 
some, and on it we made a sumptuous breakfast about noon, having eaten 
nothing before from the time of our scanty supper, that is in fifteen hours. 
When we were about to leave this place, which we all regretted to leave 
so soon, one of them took the bowl that we had been drinking out of, and 
rubbed the inside of it over with sand, and put it bottom upward upon a 
stone which had been left projecting out, just on the inside of the door¬ 
way ; and no doubt it was left there for that purpose. Then commenced 
our march, yet not before they had gone through with their long prayers, 
which in a great measure consisted of thanksgiving for the benefits of 
that fotmtain. 

On the morning of the 26th, we were awakened earlier than usual, no 
signs of day being then visible in the firmament. Immediately after the 
prayers were over we started on, when the north.star was still in sight; 
our courso was from north-east to east-north-east. Thirst and hunger 
were sufferings not new to us, but their cravings were now severe indeed. 


88 


BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 


About noon we saw a dwelling, built of stone ; on approaching which, we 
found it contained a very large family, or rather several families. Under 
the wall we seated ourselves, and were viewed by them all; and had the 
mortification (if mortified we could be by anything they could say) of 
hearing the same kind of remarks upon us, that had been made before 
from time to time, after our leaving Ahamed's tribe. We however got 
of them some boiled meal, the remains of the Arabs’ breakfast, and in it 
was a little butter; it was to us a rare dish, though a very scanty one, 
being not more than enough for two men. At a small distance from this 
house was a piece of barley, of about ten acres. This was the first inha¬ 
bited building that might be called a house, which we had seen since 
our landing, and this was the first considerable piece of barley either 
grown or growing. There was also here a little garden, in which we 
saw some fine looking pompions and onions, but could get none of them. 
Upon leaving this place, we ascended a high hill, covered with barley; 
on the summit, we discovered at a great distance off, the sea, and as that 
was the element we were so much accustomed to, the sight of it seemed 
to infuse joy into every breast. The Arabs pushed us on till near sunset, 
when we were brought to, and were informed that we now were on the 
ground belonging to Ahamed, and that the piece of grain that now lay 
before us was his. Upon viewing it, I thought it contained at least one 
hundred acres, but as I had not been accustomed to measuring land, I 
might have been wide from the mark in my calculation ; though, at any 
rate, it was the largest field of grain I ever saw. Our Arabs informed 
us that we were to stay with them there till that grain was cut and secured; 
and now, said they, we will see what Christians can do. I told Larra 
there was some management for us to attend to on this occasion ; that 
if we were to go to work, and do our best, it would be the means of per¬ 
petuating our slavery. He was of the same opinion. I then exhorted 
all my men to make it seem to these Arabs as if they were unused to that 
kind of labor, and that if they should be compelled to work, they must 
take care, while at it, to do their employers no good; telling them that 
the obtainment of our ransom would depend upon our strict adherence 
to this plan—and upon that point we were all agreed. 

Early on the moning of the 27th, the sickles that they brought with 
them were made ready, and all hands of us were ordered out to work. 
On hearing my name in particular called, I told them I never had cut 
grain, nor had ever done any work of the kind; that I was a shipmaster, 
and had been learned nothing else. For this I received their curses and 
threats, but with a determination not to heed them. In the meantime 
Larra said to me, “they are determined to try you ; I heard them say, 
if Rais works, his men will, for he is the head devil among them.” I told 
Larra he might tell them from me, that I would not work, that I was in 
their power, and they might do with me as they pleased ; that Ahamed 
had promised to carry us all to Swearah, for the purpose of our being 
ransomed there, and I had pledged myself to make him full compensation 
for all his expenses and trouble. To this they replied, that Ahamed had 
ordered them to make us work till the grain was cut and secured, and if 
1 would not work they would shoot me. The boy Jack was present, and 
interposed, by observing he heard them say, if I would not begin, and my 
men follow me, they would put me to death first , and the others should 
share the same fate. I told Jack to tell them they might do as they 
pleased; I would take my^ chance in regard to the consequences of my 
refusal. I do not wish to make myself appear in this case as the man to 


PAT SWELLS UP MARVELOUSLY. 


89 

bravo all dangers. The fact was, both myself and my crew were at that 
time reduced to mere skeletons, with fatigue of body and troubles of mind, 
all which made life the less desirable to us ; and beside, I thought there 
would be less danger of their threats being put in execution on account 
of the absence of Ahamed. 

This controversy lasted an hour, and they got my men into the field at 
last. Some of them could handle a sickle as well as themselves ; one 
of whom (being the man I was fearful would be of the most service to 
them) I told to cut his own fingers, as if by accident. They all under¬ 
stood my meaning, and it was not long after my men had been dragged 
into the field, before 1 found they were doing very well, I mean well for 
our own purposes. Some by accident, and some intentionally, perhaps, cut 
their fingers and hands with their sickles, and made loud complaints; while 
others, who were gathering up the grain for binding, did it in such a waste¬ 
ful manner that their work was a real damage to the owner. Upon this 
the Arabs took away the sickles from those of them that had been reaping, 
and set them to hauling the grain up by the roots. They did so, but laid 
it in the worst form that was possible. By managing things in this way, 
they beat the Ishmaelites, and got the victory. Our poor fellows suffered 
very much for a short time ; but at last they were all driven out of the 
field, when we all assembled together at the place where the reapers had 
begun their business. Being myself strongly impressed with the belief 
that our obstinacy in this case was the only way to obtain our freedom, I 
thought it my duty to exhort them all to stand firm in the resolution we 
had taken. I was the more thoroughly convinced of the necessity of this 
course of conduct, by two circumstances ; the one was, there were at that 
time immense fields of standing grain, which required a great many labor¬ 
ers, and the other circumstance was, the plague, as I had repeatedly 
heard, had swept off the inhabitants, which made laborers scarce. Hence 
I concluded that if we should make ourselves serviceable to our oppressors, 
we should be kept by them, at least long enough to answer their present 
purpose, and, perhaps, several of us for life. 

Soon after the Arabs had started off to their work the second time, Pat 
was missing. We all wondered (for none of us could tell) what had 
become of Pat. In about two hours he returned, marvelously changed 
in looks, and especially as to his bulk ; for he had eaten such a quantity 
of stirabout , as he called it, that his body, about the waist, was swollen 
to double the size it was when he left us. His story was this ; while 
there was going on with us the conversation about working in the barley- 
field, he took himself off, first going round a little knoll, then keeping 
himself in a valley till he thought he was far enough off to be out of his 
taskmasters’ view, and finally ascending the highest hill then in sight, 
where he saw a large house in the next valley, and the men, at that instant, 
going from it into the grain-field. As soon as he could do it with safety, 
he descended the hill, and when near the house, he saw the women, and 
stopped. They looked at him, and, probably having a knowledge of our 
being in the neighborhood, were not alarmed. He durst not approach 
them nearer, for fear of giving alarm to the men. In that situation, he 
thought to draw their compassion toward him by making to them signs 
of hunger ; but that was of no avail. Whereupon he mounted a large 
stone, and fell to singing and dancing. This took with them; in a moment, 
as it were, they all came about him, women and children, some bringing 
him milk and others stirabout. He ate all that was first brought him, and 
craved more, which they continued to furnish him with as long as he 


90 


BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 


danced and sung, and that was as long as he could eat. and move. After 
his jig was over, he took as much with him as he could carry in his hands, 
and left them, and came back by the way he went, undiscovered by the 
Arabs of the other sex. 

Some of our men were desirous of trying their luck by the same means, 
but thinking it imprudent, I dissuaded them from it. Having all that day 
received nothing to eat, and anticipating, as we then did, another cold 
night’s lodging, we all fell to work (as loose stones were plenty there,) and 
built a stone wall, three or four feet high, and perhaps ten feet long, as 
a lee to defend us from the cold of the night-wind. We had it nearly 
completed as the Arabs came in sight; when each dropping his sickle, 
they ran to us in a great passion, abused us as usual, and not only hove 
our wall down, but threatened us with severe beatings in case we should 
presume to set ourselves about that work again. In vain did we remon¬ 
strate against this cruel treatment of theirs, in not only keeping us without 
food and drink, but exposing us unsheltered to the cold night-winds; it was 
in vain we told them we could not live under such extreme hardships. 
Their only reply was, “go to work, and then you may eat.” And again, 
it was in vain to tell them that we could not work on the land, that 
the sea was our element. They were deaf to all we could say, and not 
the least relief would they afford us. At length they went to their work 
again, and when once out of sight, we feeling our situation to be truly 
distressing, held a sort of council, to devise what steps were necessary to 
be taken by us before it should be too late. A part of us no doubt had 
some inclination to go into the field to work; but at last we were unan¬ 
imously of the opinion that our best plan was to move off to the eastward 
in a body, and abide its consequences. Things being thus arranged, I 
took the lead, and all the rest followed. We had proceeded about eighty 
rods from the field when they discovered us, and, in a moment, each drop¬ 
ping his sickle, they'ran for their guns, and seizing these weapons, they 
ran after us, calling aloud for us to stop. We paid no attention to them, 
but moved on as fast as possible. The hindermost one got a knock from a 
musket, as several of the rest of us did after him, and, finally, we were 
stopped, and held a parley with them. They threatened us with death, 
but we were now past the fear of that; our lives had become burthensome 
to us, by means of our sufferings, and of our ceaseless dread of perpetual 
slavery. They ordered us back, but we refused, at all hazards, pleading, 
earnestly and repeatedly, the promise made to me by Ahamed. When 
they found we would not go back, they said we should be put where they 
could always find us, and then marched us on. After we had walked 
through the fields about two miles, we came to a large habitation ; there 
we,were stopped, under the walls, when one of them went in at the gate¬ 
way. As the gate was open, the whole of the residents there soon came 
out to look at us, and the stuff that was made use of by their tongues, it 
is not only improper to mention, but indecent. However, with a woman 
who occupied an inner room, a bargain was made, that she should keep 
us till Ahamed should come, at a given sum, by the day. This matter 
being settled, the Arabian reapers returned to their field. We soon found 
that a part of this establishment belonged to Ahamed,'and that Salear, 
which was the name of the woman, was his sister. 

During our stay here we were visited every day by one or more of our 
masters, the reapers, who, when going back, never omitted, as I can 
recollect, to give our keepers a charge not to let us ramble abroad, for 
fear, as they said, of notice of it being given to some one, who thev 


LAST FAREWELL OF SALEAR. 


91 


suspected would, in such case, rob thepi of their property, by stealing us 
away. On the 29th of April, we having then been two or three days 
in this horrible place, Ahamed arrived here, bringing with him Bob, 
another English boy, belonging to the Martin Hall. The poor boy was 
reduced to a mere skeleton. There was such a rejoicing between him 
and the other two boys, his shipmates, as it would be difficult to describe. 
They fawned around him, and asked him twenty questions in the time he 
could answer one. We mixed with them, and heartily partook of their 
joy—at this happy meeting even Ahamed seemed pleased. Bob said it 
must have been six months since he had heard a word from any of the 
crew, and he had supposed them all dead. 

The next morning, Ahamed appearing in a little better humor than 
the evening before, I asked him when he intended to carry us to- Swearah ? 
He answered, as soon as his barley should be all cut and secured, all 
which was nearly done already. Upon this, he soon went off, and returned 
to us again about noon, and with him came several Arabs, to whom, as it 
seemed, he was selling tobacco. As I was much attached to tobacco, I 
begged him for a small piece to chew. He refused at that time, but a 
little piece he gave to Larra, who put it in his mouth, which displeasing 
Ahamed, he said, “Christians are bad in everything; tobacco is made to 
smoke, and nobody but a Christian dog would eat it.” 

On the morning of the first of May, I took a seasonable opportunity to 
mention to Ahamed, that as his grain was all secured, he now would be 
at leisure to march us on to Swearah. Salear being present at the time, 
she told her brother that I had promised to send her on from that place a 
looking-glass, a comb, and a large handkerchief. He looked at me with 
a smile, and asked me if I really intended to give her the things she 
mentioned? I told him I did ; and, moreover, that I would give her some 
beads and rings for her fingers. “Now I believe you,” replied Ahamed; 
“you shall go soon, and you shall ride the horse I bought for Bob, as Bob,” 
added he, “is growing stronger every day.” Salear, since the time I had 
promised her some presents from Swearah, had been a little more accom¬ 
modating toward me. In the dusk of the evening, I found Ahamed with 
her, and the boy Jack sitting by their side, and I ventured to place myself 
among them. She reminded i^e of the promise I had made her, of the 
glass, and those several other things which the women there so highly 
value ; and I at the same time solemnly declared to her that I would fulfill 
that promise. Upon this, Ahamed made some inquiries of me with regard 
to the manufactories of my own country, which I answered as well as I 
could; and I took the liberty to tell him how much better he would be 
treated than we had been, if by accident he should be thrown on our 
shore; that in such an event, instead of being held in bondage, and sold 
from tribe to tribe, our Sultan would have him conducted back to his 
native country in safety; whereas he still held us in slavery, and several 
persons had been here already in order to purchase us for market in the 
interior; and all this, notwithstanding he could get a great price for our 
ransom from our Consul, who was distant only a few days journey. 

He heard me out, and then warmly retorted upon me as follows: “You 
say, if I were in your country, your people would treat me better than I 
treat you: there is no truth in you; if I were there, I should be doomed 
to perpetual slavery, and be put to the hardest labor, in tilling your ground; 
you are too lazy to work yourselves in your fields, and therefore send 
your ships to the negro coast; and in exchange for your useless trinkets, 
with which you cheat the poor negroes, you take away ship loads of them 


92 


BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 


to your country, from which never one returns ; and had your own ship 
escaped our shore, you yourself would now be taking off the poor negroes 
to everlasting slavery.” After this unpleasant discourse was ended, we sat 
silent for some time, and then Ahamed said to me, “In a day or two we 
shall be ready to depart.” 

On the morning of the third of May, we were awakened early, and 
found them all in a hurry at preparing for a departure. At about eight 
o’clock, we took our leave of this horrid place, when Salear followed us 
out of the yard, and, with her last farewell, bawled out to me, “ Rais, 
remember my things.” To which I brieflly answered, I should not forget 
her: nor did I ever forget her, nor ever shall I. She was about the ugliest 
looking woman I ever saw; about four feet and six inches high, squab, or 
thick round, ill shaped, petulant, crabbed, savagely ferocious, and all this 
in the very worst sense of the words. Her dress was nothing but a nearly 
worn out haick, which she wrapped around her, so as to extend from 
considerably above her knees to considerably below her breasts, which 
were enormously large. Her cheek-bones were high, her eyes small and 
black, her color that of dark copper; her teeth were fine, and were the 
only clean thing we discerned about her. We all had reason enough to 
remember her. Forget you! no, no, Salear, I can never forget you. I 
mounted the old horse that had been bought for Bob, and we took the 
foot-path leading down the valley. By noon Bob complained of fatigue, 
and could not keep up with the company, and to him I gave up the old 
horse, and made out myself to get along tolerably well on foot. 

At dusk we got into a good path, and were walking along very mode¬ 
rately, Ahamed, Jack, and myself, ahead of the rest, when the old man 
said, if he got as much money for us as he ought, he should be rich. I 
replied to him, that he should be well paid, and that no danger was to be 
apprehended on that score. After a few minutes silence, he accosted me 
in the following manner: “There is no confidence to be placed in Chris¬ 
tians ; for whenever they come on shore on our coast, and are not imme¬ 
diately discovered by us, they bury their money in the sand, as you yourself 
have done, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the true believers. 
This can do you no good, and it is our property. We pray earnestly to 
the Almighty God to send Christians ashore here ; he hears our prayers, 
and often sends us some good ships; and if you did as you ought to do, 
we should have the full benefit of them.” I then asked him if it ever 
happened that the crews of the ships coming ashore there had all perished, 
or been destroyed? To that question he answered, “It has happened, and 
it was the will of God. If they had been spared, they would have secreted 
their treasure, whereas by destroying the whole of them, we got all they 
had.” After this, he went on to relate to me the following story: “Once,” 
said Ahamed, “there came ashore a very large ship. It being some time 
before the crew were discovered, they had landed all their property, and 
had covered themselves with their sails. When they were discovered, a 
small tribe went down to take them into their possession, but they fired 
at our men, and some of them they killed. Exasperated by being fired 
at by such dogs, they fell upon them furiously, and many were killed on 
both sides. Our men, finding the enemy so strong, fell back, and send¬ 
ing up for help, another tribe went down. They now endeavored to show 
to the enemy by signs, that to themselves belonged the property, and 
they must give it up. But not being able to come to an understanding 
with these men by signs, so as to obtain what they had with them in that 
way, they drew up toward them in order to take it by force. As soon as 


AHAMED’S STOFwY—SWARM OF LOCUSTS. 


93 

our men came within gun-shot., they were fired at by them ; the fire was 
returned, and all fought hard, but our men, not being able to get at them 
with their long knives, were repulsed the second time. They then sent 
up again, and I, getting information of it, went down, with all my fighting 
men, There were now three tribes of us, and we had more men than the 
Christians ; and as my tribe was the largest, the command of the whole 
was given to me. We got down in the night, and having been running 
for three days, I thought it best not to attack them till the morning, judging 
that when they should see our numbers they would yield to us. At day¬ 
light I saw them, and made signs to them to lay down their arms, upon 
which their camp seemed all in confusion. At the moment we were 
prepared to attack them they formed themselves in a close body, and 
began to march off eastward. We formed ourselves in three divisions, 
according to our tribes, and the chief of each tribe led on his own men. 
My tribe, together with one of the other two, got in their front, and the 
remaining tribe was on their side. We all began our attack at once, and, 
after fighting a long time, we had killed half of those dogs, and then the 
remnant left alive laid down their arms. We now all dropped our guns, 
and fell upon them with our long knives, and every one of them we killed; 
and their whole number we found to be upward of five hundred. 

“After we had gone through with slaughtering them, we stripped them 
all, and left their bodies lying on the ground, and went back to the ship, 
and found that they had landed great quantities of goods. In the ship 
we found guns, iron, sails, powder, and many other things valuable to us; 
they had in the ship large guns, such as they have, you know, upon the 
walls of Swearah. When we had collected all these things together, and 
burnt the ship, we sent for our camels, and carried them home, and sold 
them about the country. We got a great deal of booty, but we lost more 
than a hundred of our men killed in battle.” When he had done, I 
asked him if they had landed casks, and whether they had built stone 
huts, and covered them with their sails, and several other questions I put 
to him relative to what we had seen near the harbor. He remained silent 
till he had heard me through, and then turned me off with this short 
answer—“that is none of your concern.” Nevertheless, I ventured to 
inquire of him as to the time when that affair happened. But his reply 
to me was the same as before, nor could I ever afterward get one word 
more from him about it. Whenever I attempted it, he would turn to Jack, 
and ask him what it was for that I wanted to know concerning that matter? 
Upon inquiry, I found that Jack had never heard this story before, nor 
had either of the two other English boys. For myself, I was fully satisfied 
that the crew of the frigate which was wrecked on that coast not very 
long before, had all been murdered, and all my companions in misfortune 
were of the same opinion. 

The fourth and fifth of May, we rose early, and traveled late; always 
suffering under our privations, but meeting with no adventures of con¬ 
sequence. On the sixth of May, so early in the morning that the stars 
were still visible in the sky, we proceeded on in a south-east course. 
About sunrise we discovered that the ground ahead was very black, and 
could not conjecture the cause; but we soon came to it, and found there 
a swarm of locusts traveling southward. The edge, or side of them, was 
as straight as a line; they were thicker than they could all stand together 
on the ground; so numerous were they that they crawled over one another’s 
backs, all struggling hard to get along. The feet of our camel crushed 
them at every step, and at every step their blood gushed out in a manner 


94 


BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 


shocking to behold; the moment the camel lifted up his foot, his footstep 
was filled with living locusts crawling over the carcasses of the crushed 
ones. Whether we looked to the north or to the south, we could see no 
end to them; they covered the ground for about half a mile in width; the 
eastern side of them was as straight as the western. We saw no straggling 
ones, nor did they fly; they were about three inches in length, and we 
concluded that they were young ones that had not the use of wings. This 
was the only swarm of locusts that we saw. All the while we were passing 
over them, the Arabs were muttering over something to themselves. 

Not long after we changed our course to the east-north-east, when 1 
had an opportunity of talking with Ahamed, and I endeavored to convince 
him (of what I had often tried in vain to convince him before) that there 
was not the least doubt but the Consul would be happy to see us, his 
brethren, in Swearah, and would immediately pay for our ransom; that 
it was not his money which would be paid for us, but money belonging 
to our Sultan, who always took care of his subjects. Ahamed’s reply was, 
“If I were sure of that , you should have your freedom in a few days.” 
As we advanced the country appeared better; the soil, and the fields of 
grain, nearly resembled what we had seen before ; the land, whenever 
we had an opportunity to examine it, appeared a fine gravel; the trees 
were more common, and, in many places, were some small groves, also 
many fig trees, though with but little fruit. Very soon after we came to 
a place where a great number of tents were struck. We viewed them, 
and found, by our Arabs, that the inhabitants had mostly died of the plague, 
and that when the tribe became reduced to a very few, those few survivors 
took all the furniture and turned it upside down, hauled out the tent poles, 
and let the whole fall to the ground, where it remained untouched ever 
after; that such was their law, that when a whole family died of that 
disease, no one might take their bowl to dip with, even though he were 
perishing for water, nor could their flocks be taken possession of by any 
process, but were left to run at large, till some one unknowing to whom 
they had belonged, takes them under his own keeping, and makes pro¬ 
clamation of it for a given time, after which, if none should have appeared 
to claim them, they are to belong to the present possessor. Upon our 
removing but a few rods from this scene of desolation, we discovered 
their garden, and getting over the fence, each of us took away a pompion, 
and was eating of it with greediness, when the Arabs perceiving it, they 
with great haste deprived us of all that we had not yet swallowed, which 
was but a little, for we had nearly eaten a raw pompion each. The curses 
they so liberally heaped upon us for this offense were but little regarded. 
One of the boys lagged behind, and got one large piece which had been 
taken from us, a share of which fell to me, and it tasted really well. 
Late in the afternoon we came to a tribe of about fifty tents, where we 
stopped. 

The Arabs were well received here, but as to ourselves, nowhere had 
we been so much ridiculed. The were not sparing of their vile epithets, 
so common to these people, who had ever viewed us as a poor degraded 
set of beings, hardly fit to live in the world. The women were foremost 
in insolence and abuse, and their children not far behind them. Here 
we got water, aud a little raw meal. Ahamed here bought three asses, 
to assist us along in our journey; one he gave me, and the other two were 
used among us alternately, as the needs of our men required. On the 
morning of the eighth, we started on early. The women ridiculed us as 
we passed along, and bawled out to us, “You swinish looking dogs, go 


THE CHRISTIAN DOGS ARE FED. 


95 

to your own country, we do not want you here.” Those of us who rode 
on the asses were behind the rest, and after us in particular these women 
ran, and in a few minutes dismounted us, taking the asses away, and 
laughing immoderately all the time. We cried out for help, and the Arabs 
discovering the sad plight we were in, came back to us, and, with much 
persuasion, regained for us our beasts, at the same time blaming us for 
being behind. There was now in our view a large town, or city, covering, 
I should suppose, two or three acres of ground. The walls appeared 
from ten to twenty feet high; on the north side was a large breach in the 
wall; the Arabs were looking at it, and talking about it, while Jack and 
myself were both sitting on the animals we rode, and Ahamed perceiving 
us looking that way, asked Jack if there were such large cities in England? 
The boy told him there were much larger ones there. Upon which Aha¬ 
med went on to say, this city was destroyed, and every soul put to death; 
that he was at the siege, with all his tribe, and he exultingly added, “we 
spared none, not even the children!” I asked him the cause of that mas¬ 
sacre ; to which he replied, “It contained bad men ; wicked men, who 
feared not God, and did not live like true mussulmen.” 

About noon we took a short turn to the left, over a high hill, and there 
we saw the sea, and, in a valley not far distant, a great number of tents. 
No sooner did we see these tents, then Ahamed called out to us, in Arabic, 
“There is my brother! you shall now have enough to eat.” We ap¬ 
proached to within the usual distance, and all sat down except Ahamed. 
As soon as the two brothers met, each put his right hand upon the 
head of the other, then each kissed his right hand, and then they shook 
hands ; and all this before a word was uttered by either of them. When 
this ceremony was finished, the chief then says to his near kinsman, 
“Dear brother, are you well? from whence are you? where are you going? 
how did you leave your children?” and, last of all, he inquires, “how 
are your wives?” To this Ahamed answers, “Dear brother, I am directly 
from home; I am bound off to find a market for these Christians ; my 
children are all well; one of my wives is sick; we have traveled a long 
way to-day without food; these Christian dogs have been complaining 
of hunger, and I promised them they should have victuals enough upon 
our arrival here.” The other then says, “All is well; to-night they shall 
have as much as they can eat; go to my tents.” This was a strange sight; 
two brothers, after a long absence, meeting together, going through as 
much ceremony as if they were utter strangers, gravely and steadfastly 
looking one another full in the face, and with eyes seemingly so piercing 
as to pry into the depths of each other’s hearts:—all this was very singular, 
and at the same time there appeared in it something of dignity or grandeur. 

I took this opportunity to beg for victuals, and Ahamed’s brother told 
me he had ordered his wife to cook for us as much as we could eat, and 
that it was now boiling; he then left us. As soon as he was gone, one 
of the boys went to his tent, and found, sure enough, a pot boiling. Our 
hunger was so great that every minute seemed to us an hour. At last, 
being informed that our meal was cooked, one of our boys went for it, and 
found one potful only ; that was turned out into a large bowl, and brought 
us boiling hot. We could not wait for it to cool, but instantly began to 
eat it, hot as it was. Reader, if you have ever seen a hog run his nose 
into a trough of hot swill, and observed the queerness of his behavior 
upon it, you may figure to yourself the appearance we made while eating 
this meal in our tent. We soon found the bottom of the bowl, and scraped 
it out clean with our fingers. 


96 


BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 


When this bowl was finished, the two brothers came to our tent, and 
asked us if we had had enough? The boys answered, We have had but 
one potful, and that is not half enough. He turned from us, and went 
to his tent, which was not ten paces off, and, in a very moderate tone of 
voice, spbke to his wife thus: “Did I not tell you to boil for these Chris¬ 
tians both pots?” She replied, “You did, but I thought one was as much 
as they deserved.” Without uttering another word, he took up a heavy 
club, and struck her over the breast. She fell, and he continued to beat 
her till we could no longer hear her groans. Ahamed stood motionless. 
We besought him to intercede with his brother for her, but he shook his 
head, and said nothing. When this old man had done beating his wife, 
he called to a woman in the next tent, and ordered her to boil a pot of 
meal for us, and added, “I will see if my orders cannot be obeyed.” 
Upon this, he, together with Ahamed, walked back to the place where 
the men of his tribe were sitting on the ground, and he seemed as little 
discomposed as if he had been beating a dog. I sent in one of the boys to 
see if she was dead, who stayed some time, and I heard him talking there 
with the woman that was cooking. When 1 had called him back, he 
said she was still alive, that her head was considerably swollen, and that 
her neck and breasts were bruised very much; and that the women there 
observed, “She will die soon, and to-night we will bury her.” 

Presently our pot of stirabout was done, and she, the cook, called one 
of the English boys to bring away the bowl. He went, and took it to our 
tent, where we agreed to let it cool, the craving of our appetite being now 
somewhat allayed. The boy found the wounded woman still alive, but 
said she was much more swollen than when he had seen her before. When 
this food was so far cooled as to be eatable, we fell to, and ate the whole, 
and sent the bowl back to the tent, with a message, in these few words, 
We have had enough. The old chief, I suppose, saw the bowl returned, 
and he and Ahamed came and inquired of us if we had had enough ; and, 
after being answered affirmatively, he walked to his tent, and, with appa¬ 
rent indifference, asked the women if his wife was dead. Receiving for 
answer that she was not dead, but could not live long, he and Ahamed 
both went back again to the other men. 

On the morning of the ninth, we were slow about moving ; and did not 
start till sunrise. At the moment of our departure I sent one of the boys 
to see whether the woman, so cruelly beaten by Ahamed’s brother, was 
living or dead. He returned, and said they could perceive life in her 
yet, but he was told by the one that had cooked for us the day before, 
that she was almost gone, and would die very soon; that she was swollen 
to a great size. I think it beyond doubt that she died that very morning. 
As we advanced, the country looked still better and better; the grain-fields 
seemed alive with reapers; it was not uncommon for us to see forty or 
fifty of them in a single field. About noon, when we were upon one of 
the highest of these hills, Ahamed cried out thrice, as loud as he could 
hallo, “St. Cruz! St. Cruz! St. Cruz!” and then, pointed to me a space 
where the mountains of the Atlas were fallen away, I could plainly discern 
what appeared to me a white speck, which he said was St. Cruz. Aha¬ 
med now seemed very lively, as did also most of the rest of them. When 
an opportunity was left me to question him, I asked him what the distance 
was to St. Cruz, and whether any Christian ships were there? To this 
he replied, that St. Cruz was in sight, and not far off, that there were no 
ships there, nor had been for a long time; that all the ships went to 
Swearah. That is Mogadore, said I to him. “Yes,” he answered, “you 


HORRID SUSPENSE. 


97 

call it so ; were you ever there?” Yes. “Were you ever at St. Cruz?” 
No. “Who do you know in Swearah?” Consul Gwyn, tasher Court, 
Jackson, Foxcroft, and many others, some French, and some Spaniards. 
Turning to Ahamed, who was all attention to this conversation, he said 
to him, “lie has been at Swearah, and has friends there.” He then 
concluded with asking me if Consul Gwyn had money enough to ransom 
so many of his brothers? Without hesitation, I told him he could ransom 
ten times our number if they were brought to him; and I endeavored to 
make him understand that the Consul did not pay this money from his own 
purse, but it was money belonging to our Sultan, who placed it at his 
disposal for that purpose, and, in case that he (the Consul) should at any 
time be short of money, it was only for him to borrow of the rich merchants 
till our Sultan should send him more. This explanation of mine seemed 
to be satisfactory to him, and our conversation was here closed. On the 
morning of the tenth, we were awakened by the sound of the voices of the 
Arabs at prayer. We saw no appearance of any habitation till near night; 
and having traveled over heavy sand, and the weather extremely hot, we suf¬ 
fered for water, but none could be found. At length Ahamed told us 
we should soon come to a small tribe of his acquaintance, and there we 
should fare well. It was beginning to be dusk, when, on our rising a hill, 
we saw St. Cruz, which did not appear twenty miles off, though in that 
we were mistaken. 

At about eight o’clock we arrived at the tribe which Ahamed had 
spoken of, which consisted of about thirty. We got here but a poor 
supper, which consisted of a little raw meal and bad water. When we 
lay down to sleep, we found ourselves watched in a manner little different 
from what had been usual, the Arabs lying on the outside of us. We 
slept not well: being not far from the sea, and the wind blowing strong 
all the night, we lay extremely cold. We had one comfort, however, and 
a very great one; we now were beginning to think ourselves nearly out 
of danger, and that rendered our sufferings the more tolerable. The 
length of this day’s travel must, as we thought, have exceeded thirty miles. 
On the morning of the eleventh, we started on half an hour before day¬ 
light, and took a south-east course, and traveled fast. At the dawn of 
day we saw St. Cruz far on our left. About noon, we found we were at 
least eight miles from the town, and were hidden from it by some high 
sand-hills on our front. Here we discovered a few huts a little on our 
right, and the Arabs proposed to go to them; while we, on the contrary, 
begged hard to go directly on to St. Cruz, at which we might arrive in 
two or three hours. Their demur about proceeding directly forward, 
gave us considerable uneasiness. The Arabs at last gave us peremptory 
orders to march to the huts, and did it with apparent anger; and, as we 
were not sure of our being then within the emperor’s territory, it was a 
dictate of prudence that we should obey. 

I soon found an occasion of talking with Ahamed, and asked him when 
we were going on? at the same time reminding him that we had been 
Here two hours, and were pretty well refreshed. He looked me full in 
the face, and piercingly, as if he could read my heart, and asked me what 
was my haste? I pretended I was not in much haste, and told him it was 
much more comfortable traveling now than it was in the morning, as the 
sun was fast lowering, and the wind blowing fresh, and we felt ourselves 
very much refreshed. He said to me, “Not long ago you were hungry, 
and since that you have had nothing considerable to eat; and now, hungry 
as you are, you are desirous to march off, though there are two pots of 
7 


98 


BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 


victuals boiling for you.” At the moment of Ahamed’s leaving me. a 
fellow, on a gray horse, came galloping down the hill on the other side 
of the river. We all huddled round him, and distinctly heard him say, 
“Well, I see you are determined to carry these slaves to Swearah;—1 
heard from there yesterday, and intended to have seen you last night; hut 
you took the lower road, and so I missed you: this morning I heard 
of you, and intended to have seen you before you had crossed this water— 
however, it is not too late yet. You may now rest assured that the Consul 
will not ransom these Christians. But a few days ago, an old man, a friend 
of mine, came directly from Swearah;—he told me he saw several Chris¬ 
tian slaves in that town, whom the Consul refused to ransom, and that the 
Arab who carried them to that market could get no pay for them at all; 
but if you will only re-cross the river in time, you may sell every one pf 
your slaves at a place south of here, and which is within three days’ march. 
The plague has taken off so many of our men, that there are not enough 
of them left to cut and harvest such abundant crops as our God in his 
goodness hath bestowed upon us, and these men I know can soon learn 
to work.” 

Our Arabian masters said but little in reply to this harangue, but with 
us there was a general vociferation against it. At no time before this, 
had we dared to interfere in their conversation ; but now we were driven 
to extremities, and pleaded as for our lives. The English boys took the 
lead: speaking to them in Arabic, they refuted all that the fellow had 
advanced; and they asserted that I was well known in Swearah, and had 
friends there enough to redeem us all. In this condition of horrid sus¬ 
pense we were left for half an hour, when Ahamed came back, and told 
us that none of our masters had consented to sell to the fellow, except 
the owner of Hussey, my mate, and that he (Hussey’s master) had agreed 
to sell him, and return home himself. I tried to find out the price he was 
sold for, but could not. My poor companion, Hussey, shed tears in 
abundance, and the rest of us appeared in great distress. As to Ahamed, 
all he said on the occasion was, “I cannot help it.” After a short silence, 
my mate put on his manly resolution, and said, “Let it be so ; I must go, 
but our separation will be very short; I will be in St. Cruz in the morning.” 
To part with him in this manner was more than we could bear. Boy Jack 
was not to be trusted, but as he understood the Arabic much better than 
either of the other boys, I thought it best to make use of him as my mouth; 
accordingly I directed him to go to Hussey’s master, and tell him if he 
would not part with that man, I would pledge my honor that the Consul 
should give more than the price he had sold him for, and that over and 
above this I would make him a present on our arrival at Mogadore. In 
this case, though, perhaps, in but few others, Jack did his duty faithfully, 
and the bargain was broken off; not, however, till after Ahamed, the 
mate’s master, and myself, with Jack for our interpreter, had had a long 
talk on the subject. At sunset, our chapman re-crossed the river, and 
rode away over the hill, and out of our sight, in as great a rage as it was 
possible for a barbarian or savage to show. 

On the morning of the twelfth, the sun was fully up before we had got 
fairly under way. For several miles, and to within two or three miles of 
St. Cruz, we pursued the downward course of the river, and then we 
turned to the right, in a direction for that city, which had a formidable 
appearance. It was situated on the peak of a very high hill, formed by 
nature for defense, and on the side that met our view were embrasures 
for guns; it was natural for us to conclude that this was the emperor’s 


PROSPECTS OF LIBERTY. 


99 

frontier town. When we had come within two or three hundred yards 
of the lower town, we saw a man skipping down over the rocks, and ad¬ 
vancing toward the lower town with great speed, having a gun in his hand. 
As soon as he had come within call, he ordered us to stop ; we all stopped 
at a little distance from the nearest houses, and he demanded of us who 
we were. On receiving from the Arabs an answer to this question, he, 
demanded the name of our chief. To which Ahamed answered that he 
was chief, and he gave him his name, and my name was called for 
next. Upon which he said to me, “You are to appear before the governor 
immediately.” My bosom swelled with joy at these words. I called to 
Larra, and bade him follow me. I forgot my inability to jump, and to 
run, and how, in my feeble and emaciated condition, I made the ascent 
so quick, is beyond my power to tell. When we had arrived at the gate 
of the battery, which was in a very short time, Larra observed to me, 
“Captain, the water runs off your face,” which was a circumstance that 
I had not perceived before. We entered, I directly following the soldier, 
Larra next, and Ahamed last. 

In this room of refuge, where we had so happily arrived at last, were 
sitting on a bench three well-looking men, of much lighter color and 
stouter frame than the Arabs, and one of them was holding in his hand 
a long spyglass. They ordered us to sit down, and we did so; seating 
ourselves in the middle of the room, which was probably from twelve to 
sixteen feet square, while Ahamed (not chief now) squeezed himself up 
in one corner. Looking, as I did, all around the room, I saw a door back 
of us that was shut. We sat silent, for near a quarter of an hour, these 
men all the time fixing their eyes upon us. At last, Larra breaking 
silence, asked me if I thought any one of these men was the governor. I told 
him I thought he was not there. Then one of them asked me in English 
if I were an Englishman? and upon my replying that I was, he said, 
“You and the boy both look like Spaniards.” I answered him, including 
Larra with myself, we are English. Speaking very slow and distinctly, 
he asked me to what part of England our ship belonged? where we were 
bound, and what after? how large a ship she was? how many poles she 
had? what goods were on board? and how much money we had with us? In 
answer to these queries, I told him the ship belonged to Liverpool, was 
bound to the Cape de Yerd islands for a load of salt, that she was a con¬ 
siderably large ship, but not very large, that she had three poles, (masts,) 
had no goods, and but a little money, barely enough to buy a load of salt. 
He asked me if there was no salt in Liverpool? 1 told him we had large 
quantities of it there, but that the salt which we were going after was of 
another kind, made in a hot climate by the heat of the sun, and that we 
were to carry it to a foreign country, far away to the westward, where it 
was worth more money than the Liverpool salt. “Well,” he said, “the 
next time you come along this coast keep further off; ships with three 
poles should not come so near; formerly, when we had trade at St. Cruz, 
the large ships always laid off a great way from shore.” At that moment 
we heard a noise without, when the Moor that had been questioning me, 
instantly says, “The governor is coming.” As he entered the room, I 
arose, and addressed him in English, just as I should have done if he 
had understood that language, the Moor in the meantime interpreting to 
him what I said. He returned my salutation, and invited me to sit down, 
which I did. 

He was a stout, portly, well-looking man, about six feet high and nearly 
fifty years old, of a light copper color, with a short bushy beard, and wore 


100 


BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 


a clean white haick, and neat morocco slippers ; his pleasing, manly look 
prepossessed me in his favor; all his questions to me were pertinent and 
distinct. The Moor told him in Arabic the substance of the interrogations 
which he had put to me, and then the governor went onto ask me himself 
several questions about my shipwreck,the cause of it, the time it happened, 
and whether the Arabs there present had any of the gold that I had lost 
After I had, by and through Larra, answered all these questions to his 
satisfaction, he asked me how this Arab (Ahamed) had treated me? 
Without waiting for a reply, he continued on, and said, “These Arabs 
are all a set of thieves, robbers, and murderers, and from time immemo¬ 
rial they have been at war with the Moors as well as with all others within 
their reach, and if they have not treated you well, 1 will keep you here a 
few days, when I shall be going myself to Swearah, and will take you 
along with me and deliver you up to the Consul.” Ahamed trembled, as 
I could plainly perceive. I then answered the question he had put to me 
regarding our treatment by Ahamed, telling him that Ahamed and his 
companions had bought us of a hunting party, and had paid a considerable 
sum for us, and had not treated us so well as perhaps they ought, but I 
had no doubt they would do better in this respect for the time to come, 
and being so near Swearah, I preferred going on with them. He then 
asked if I was hungry? I am both hungry and very thirsty, was my reply. 
Upon this he turned to the soldier that stood behind him, and ordered 
some drink for me, telling him not to be long after it. In a few minutes 
he returned, with some sweet milk mixed with water, of which we drank 
freely. I was about to reach the kettle to Ahamed, but the governor 
forbade it, saying, “That fellow don't drink from my kettle .” The kettle 
was of copper, and scoured to a high polish. After Larra had drank, I 
set it down, and then came the victuals. It was a dish of coscoosoo, which 
is a favorite dish with Moors; on it lay a whole quarter of a fat goat, the 
sight of which astonished me. The quantity of food in this dish was 
greater than our whole company of eleven had eaten for three days together. 
The smell was to us as deliciously fragrant as can possibly be described. 
I looked ^.t it for some time, when the governor and Larra both speaking 
to me at the same moment, said, “Captain why do you not eat?” The 
truth was, I was afraid to eat; for so keen was my appetite, that had I 
fully gratified it with feeding on such an excellent dish, I do believe, 
empty as my stomach then was, it would not only have been the means 
of my going no further, but would have killed me outright. When we 
began to eat, all their eyes were fixed upon us. I ate in a manner as 
sparing as I could possibly bring myself to, and finding Larra inclined to 
be ravenous, I repeatedly told him not to eat like a hog. One of the 
Moors who understood that expression, interpreted it to the governor, 
who laughed heartily, which did not, however, disturb Larra at all, but 
ne still bolted it down with all speed. In the dish lay a knife, with which 
I cut off some of the meat, and ate it, and drank a little milk and water, 
and so quitted it, while feeling nearly as hungry as when I had begun. At 
first the governor urged me to eat more, but when I mentioned to him 
the state of my stomach, he said, “You have been prudent.” 

The governor was absent about half an hour, when he came to the door, 
with nearly a dozen thin loaves of bread, which he reached to me, and I 
do think they were the whitest I ever saw. I took them, and stowed them 
away about me, and returned him thanks for this noble present. He took 
the street, and walked back to the battery, which probably was his audience 
chamber. There he addressed himself to Ahamed in these words: “You 


AHAMED SWEARS BY HIS BEARD. 


101 

I command to take these Christians to Swearah, and deliver them over to 
their Consul without any unnecessary delay ; in three days after this you 
are to arrive there ; use them in the best manner you possibly can ; and 
now depart.” The governor was standing when he uttered this mandate. 
Ahamed was sitting when I left him, nor had he, according to Larra’s 
account, stirred an inch since that time ; but upon hearing the orders of 
the governor, he fell upon his knees, or rather advanced on them, up to 
the governor, and kissed the hem of his garment. When I joined the 
men who had been my companions in distress, I found them feasting 
sumptuously; they had fine, white, fresh loaves of bread, with dry dates 
and water, set before them, and no doubt bv the governor’s order. In¬ 
stantly upon my appearance, every one of them was desirous of knowing 
from me what reception I had met with ; but so overcome was I at our 
good fortune, that I could only tell them we were safe. We were then 
all life and spirits, thanking God for our deliverance thus far. The Arabs 
with the camels had been detained by the governor’s order, as a party 
connected with us, and they were in great haste to proceed on. We were 
very quickly provided with such kinds of saddles, or riding-seats, as could 
be procured, which were mean at best. Some us had none, but luckily 
for myself, I got some rubbish quilted on behind the hump, so high as to 
form a tolerable seat. 

When it was near noon of the second day after we had left St. Cruz, 
we met with six or eight men together, who were traveling westward. 
Whether they were Arabs or Moors we did not know; in some respects 
these two kinds of people appear alike ; their color does not differ a great 
deal, and some of the wild Arabs shave their heads like the Moors. Our 
Arabs had some talk with these travelers, which none of us took notice 
of, as our minds were at rest as regarded our reaching Swearah. They 
separated, and we walked on, and presently Ahamed seemed to be agitated 
with something, and muttered to himself as he went along, but none of us 
regarded it. At length, while he, Larra, and myself, were close together, 
he broke out in a passion, and expressed himself thus: “I swear by my 
beard (taking hold of it with his hand) I will carry you no further than 
that house,” pointing to one that was near by. “I have heard, by a man 
I can believe, the Consul will not ransom any more Christians, and I am 
sorry I ever brought you here; by the expense of my purchasing you of 
the mountaineers, and the provision I have made for you, you have de¬ 
stroyed all my substance. You told me the Consul would redeem you, 
and now 1 find I am cheated, and you shall go no further.” 

Larra, with all dispatch, interpreted to me this complaint and threat 
of Ahamed, and added, “he has taken the oath that is most sacred among 
the Mohammedans,”—meaning his swearing by his beard. By this time 
we had arrived at the gate of a large dwelling, and we were marched into 
the yard, which contained perhaps half an acre ; in the rear of which was 
a small cabin about twelve by twenty feet. Having arrived at this prison 
of ours, Ahamed said to me, “Here you are to remain until the money 
for your ransom be paid down.” I attempted to reason with him, but he, 
and all the rest of them, were as cross as curs. 

The Arabs were now very peevish, and what seemed to occasion their 
uncommon peevishness at this time, they could not devise what measures 
to take with us. We suspected they were trying to collect strength to get 
us back into their own territory. Soon after this, a lusty Moor with a 
clean haick and morocco slippers, whom we suspected to be a magistrate, 
came into the yard. He approached us, calling out Christiano, as usual, 


102 BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 

and speaking to the Arabs; and, according to my arrangement in the 
morning, I accosted him in the following words — We are here in the 
Sultan’s territory, held by these Arabs, and from your hands we ask 
justice. Your Sultan and our Sultan are on the most friendly terms. M e 
ask nothing from these men but our freedom, which we are willing to pay 
for; they have been told that our Consul is unable to pay a sufficient 
ransom for us all, but in that they have been misinformed. To keep us 
here starving will never help them.” 

After I had gone through with what I had to say, he asked me if I could 
write? I answered that I could. He then turned to the Arabs, who had 
heard our talk, and proposed to them to let me write a letter, and have it 
sent to the Consul, adding, “You will know then whether the stories they 
have told you be true or false.” The Arabs consented that I should send 
a letter if I would hire a Moor to carry it, which I agreed to. Accordingly 
a man was sent for, who demanded four dollars for that service, and I 
promised to pay it. Upon this, he said he would be ready as soon as he 
could get his horse, and that would be as soon as I could write my letter. 
A sheet of paper, a reed, (by the way, the Moors always use reeds for 
pens,) and some ink, were immediately procured for me, and a large flat 
stone was my writing-table. Our good Moor lent me a sharp knife, with 
which I made a tolerable pen. Ahamed sat-opposite to me. It was agreed 
upon that Ahamed should dictate my letter, and I called for Larra to in¬ 
terpret it, but he insisted that Jack should be the interpreter, to which 1 
consented. Ahamed began to dictate, and did it in short sentences, and 
I wrote about as fast as he spoke, but not a single sentence of what he 
told me to write. The substance of what he dictated to me was, that 
myself and crew were down in the country, held captives by the Arabs, 
who would not carry us to Swearah till our redemption money was sent 
them in advance ; that agreeably to our contract, for which they had my 
solemn pledge of honor, our ransom was to be four hundred dollars for 
each of us, and forty dollars over and above for myself; that the men 
who held us captives had been kind to us, but were unable to give us 
much to eat; that we were very sickly, and needed help immediately, and 
that the bearer would bring the money, and the Consul might send a man 
to see it paid. 

I directed my letter to the British Consul at Mogadore, or any other 
humane man into whose hands it might fall, and stated in it that we were 
a short day’s march eastward of St. Cruz, and, according to my calculation, 
seventy miles south-west of Mogadore, but that I was unable to name the 
place we were at; that we had been wrecked on the coast of Barbary ; 
that my crew here were eight in number, and that beside we had with us 
three of the Martin Hall’s crew ; that we were in a suffering condition, 
and that the Arabs here were devising means to get us back, beyond St. 
Cruz, to a region where we should be doomed to drag out our existence 
in barbarian slavery; and finally, that I wished the bearer might be 
detained till he could release us, since, in the event of his returning 
without the money, we should be dragged back before aid could be afforded 
us, adding my belief that he had a full knowledge of these merciless 
savages, and would take such measures for us as humanity should dictate. 
When I had done writing my letter, the Arabs, very unexpectedly, ordered 
me to read it. My mate, who was looking over my shoulder, seeing my 
embarrassment, said to me, “Read on, you can do it well enough”—and 
luckily for me, I made out to read it to their satisfaction. Ahamed then 
told Jack to read it, and well knowing he could not, I reached him the 


BLASTED HOPES. 


103 

letter, and Jack, upon looking at it, said it would do very well, as also 
said our old friend the Moor. Though I had folded the letter up before 
the Moor was ready to start, yet he demanded some tobacco in addition 
to his stipulated pay, saying I had detained him too long. That I promised, 
and then had to open the letter and write tobacco at the bottom. Now he 
thought it would do, and said he would return on the third day. We all 
went to the gate to see him off, and he started upon a full gallop, on a fine 
bay horse, and was very soon out of sight. The Moors departed. My 
excellent friend, the Moor, said to me, “You now will soon gain your 
freedom,” and left us, after I had returned to him my cordial thanks for 
his kindness to us. We all now returned to our lodging-place, rejoicing 
at this most flattering prospect of soon obtaining our freedom. 

In a single hour these hopes of ours were blasted. To our astonish¬ 
ment the Moor came running into the yard, with the letter open in his 
hand. Upon our going out of our cabin to know the cause of his return, 
he told us he had ridden but a little way when he met with one of his 
acquaintances, who desired to know where he was bound, and on what 
business; and, upon his telling him, he wanted to see the letter, which 
having examined, he said it was good for nothing. We, on our part, 
contended that the letter was a good one. In the meantime our faithful 
friend came to us, in apparent anger, and demanded the cause of our 
messenger’s return ; and being told the story of it by the Arabs, and I 
still insisting upon it, that the letter was good, he took our part, and said 
the man who had examined it was a liar, and then walked out of the yard. 
Soon after I took Larra with me, and we went to Ahamed, who was sitting 
under the wall of our enclosure. I told him he was acting contrary to his 
own interest in thus detaining us here, and recommended it to him to 
send on some man or other with the letter which the Moor had brought 
back, assuring him that immediate attention would be paid to that letter 
on its arrival at Swearah. Ahamed replied, “That letter is good for 
nothing.” Let me me read it to you again, said I to him. “No,” he 
answered, “that will do no good, for it sha’n’t be sent on again.” After 
a little pause, he asked me if I would send a man up for the money? I 
readily told him I would if he would send a man and horse with him. 
This proposition he agreed to, and the arrangement made between us was 
satisfactory to all the Arabs. 

Our two envoys were moving toward the gate, when our friendly Moor 
met them, and demanded to know whither they were bound. “They are 
bound to Swearah,” replied Ahamed, “to bring the money for the ransom 
of these Christians.” The Moor then told them to stop, and they did so, 
and he addressed himself to Ahamed as follows: “Are you so ignorant 
as to suppose the Consul will believe the story you are about to send him? 
depend upon it, he will not. I know him, and know that he is a wise 
man. If you should send Rais, he would believe him, and the money 
would be in safe hands.” Then turning to me, he said, “ Is it not so?” 
I told him this was a plan of their own forming, and that I had consented 
to it from a belief that any kind of efforts to obtain our freedom would 
be better than to stay here and not act at all. Ahamed, looking me full 
in the face, said, “ Will you go?” Yes, I answered. “Will you pay the 
expenses?” I gave him the same answer. “Well,” he rejoined, “I will 
go also, provided you will return with me in case you can’t get the money.” 
That I promised to do. “We must have two horses,” he said, “and take 
urns to ride.” I agreed lo it; and also agreed with the same Moor that 
we had engaged before, to furnish another horse, for the additional pay 


104 


BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 


of four dollars and a knife. Accordingly another horse was provided in 
haste, and in the meantime Ahamed was much engaged with his com¬ 
panions the Arabs. As to my men, they came round me, rejoicing that 
the time of our deliverance was so near at hand. 

About four o’clock of our second day’s travel, my two companions 
suddenly disappeared, while descending a steep sand-hill, and the next 
moment my horse took down the same hill, when, in an instant, there 
opened to my view the sea, and the town of Mogadore far on the right, 
and only a few miles distant from it three large brigs lying at anchor. 
Here the two men made a full stop, and Ahamed said to me, “Do you 
know that place? See the ships there!” So great were my emotions at 
this sudden change of my condition, that I was quite overcome, and lost 
even the power of speech. When they saw the tears gushing profusely 
from my eyes, they laughed, I suppose at my weakness ; for the Arabs 
consider weeping as beneath the dignity of a man, though not disgraceful 
in a woman. These men stood till I had collected the manly part, and 
then asked me if I knew the place, and the ships, and what nation they 
belonged to? I told them the place was Mogadore, and I had no doubt 
but the ships belonged to my own country. Here we made a stop, and 
Ahamed said that we could not enter the town, because its people were 
asleep. I made use of all the Arabic I was master of to persuade him 
to go on, but to no purpose ; he refused in plain terms, by saying, we 
must turn back to the buildings only a few rods behind us, where waa 
a considerable collection of dwellings walled in. About nine o’clock 1 
was conducted into my apartment. After I had laid down in this agreeable 
resting-place, for such it was to me, the Moors flocked all round me, a? 
many as the room could hold, and many others stood without the doorway 
Their conversation seemed wholly on the occurrences relating to out 
shipwreck, the situation we were in, in the desert, the money we had cost 
them, and the disposition of our masters to restore us to our brothers in 
Swearah. Our visitors told him there was no danger but the Consul 
would pay for my ransom ; “True,” they said, “he was not so rich as 
Court, Jackson, and some others there, but he was good. After listening 
to their conversation a long time, and being very weary, I fell asleep, but 
was soon awakened by the smell of broiled beef, on which the Arab and 
the Moor, with six or eight beside, were feasting sumptuously. As soon 
as their meal was finished, mine was brought me, which was a wonderful 
mess for one man, though the quantity was not quite so great as had been 
given me by the governor of St. Cruz. What was now set before me 
consisted of about three pounds of beef-steak broiled, about three pounds 
of hot bread from the oven, sixteen hard boiled eggs, and half a pound 
of butter. As I was beginning, Ahamed said to his company, “Now see 
him eat.” I first broke the bread, and ate a little of it; I pulled some 
of the meat to pieces, and ate of that about two ounces; I broke an egg, 
and finding it hard boiled, laid it down, and after eating moderately of the 
bread, and a little butter, I left off, while my appetite was still craving 
strongly for more. I then broke open a small loaf of bread still warm, 
and put a little butter on the inside of it, to be laid between my mats, 
under my head, and, all this done, I gave up the dish. They asked me 
why I did not eat, and if I were sick? I told them I was not sick, and 
gave them to understand that eating more plentifully might injure me. 
Upon which they took the dish to themselves, and ate all I had left, 
except the broken egg, and what I had polluted with my fingers; not only 
this did they reject, but they carefully scraped off the butter on the side 











“Dismembered and roasted, these poor fellows were soon elcn under the eyes of Dillon. There now remained upon the 
lock only Dillon. Burhart and Wilson,—three men against "«ny thousand assailants. Thinking they now should have it 
;t/oir own wav. the savages If, ^pyuyneneed the-abcack fury. —Page off 

\ n«c —: . _ 

































iten under the eyes of Dillon. There now remained upon the 
any thousand assailants. Thinking they now should have it 
fury.”—Page 50. 





















INTERVIEW WITH AN ENGLISH CONSUL. 105 

I had taken it from. I fell asleep before they had dispersed, and awoke 
a little before daylight. It was in vain that I urged Ahamed to go on; 
he objected to it, that the Consul was asleep. After the sun was con¬ 
siderably up, Ahamed, at my repeated solicitations, brought me the 
horse, and I mounted, and took along the beach, near the edge of the sea, 
where the ground was firm for traveling. We were soon at the city gate, 
and were detained there but a few minutes, just to give time for Ahamed 
to answer several questions that were put to him ; which done, we were 
permitted to enter. As soon as we had passed through the gate, I looked 
around me, and devoutly exclaimed, O Lord, protect me within these 
walls! Having turned round several corners, into narrow straight streets, 
we came at last to a very large double door, at which Ahamed knocked 
several times, but received no answer. I asked him if this was the Con¬ 
sul’s? But before he had time to reply, a man came running up to us, 
and inquired of me, in good English, who I was? Upon my telling him, 
he says, “Come along with me, and I will show you the way to the Consul’s 
We soon came to the Consul’s door, on which I gave three distinct knocks, 
when its latch was raised, and the door I pushed open, which led me into 
the yard that was in the center of the buildings. Hearing men talking 
above, and there being a stone stairway on the left, I ascended, and at 
the head of the stairs I saw six or eight well-looking sailors, who, the 
moment they got their eyes on me, rushed forward, knowing of course 
that I was a shipwrecked seaman. After bidding me welcome, in their 
peculiar way, their inquiry of me was, if I had seen any of the Martin 
Hall’s crew? and when I told them that three of that crew were with my 
men, and that another of them I had seen, who had been left with the 
wild Arabs, their joy on the occasion was expressed in their own way, 
but was as sincere no doubt as if they had expressed it in the most refined 
language. When these emotions had a little subsided, I asked for the 
Consul, and one of them, after telling me he was asleep, ran to his door, 
and called out, “Mr. Gwyn, Mr. Gwyn, an English captain is here from 
the Arab coast, and the Arabs with him.” 

I heard him answer something, and in one minute open came his door, 
and he presented himself to me with nothing on but his shirt and breeches. 
Never can I forget the cordial reception he gave me. “My good friend,” 
he said, “how happy am I to see you! Wait a little till I dress myself.” 
He returned, leaving me with the sailors, who I found were of the Martin 
Hall’s crew. They all huddled around me, like so many children around 
an adored parent, asking the same questions over and over again. Soon 
the venerable old gentleman, Consul Gwyn, came to us, dressed, and in 
a truly friendly manner shook hands with me the second time, and then 
said, “Come with me, my breakfast is ready.” While I was following 
him to his room, he made a stop, and asked me to what part of England 
my ship belonged? Upon this I told him that I had been carrying on a 
piece of deception, but which I believed had injured no man; that I had 
all along called myself an Englishman, with a view of gainingmy freedom, 
as I was fearful there was no American Consul here ; and that in fact I 
was an American, belonging to the State of New York, and my ship also 
belonged there. He paused but a moment only, when he said, “Very 
well; you are a Christian, and that is enough.” I hastily asked him if I 
were safe from the Arabs? He answered, “Yes, you are in no danger.” 
I will do everything in my power for you, but I am poor, and cannot 
advance money for your ransom; but beyond doubt there are gentlemen 
here who will do it.” I told him I was in fear of my men being dragged 


BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 


106 

back to tne country of the Arabs: upon which he called for Ahamed, 
who, with the Moor, was sitting by the kitchen door, and interrogated him 
as to the place where my men were ; and after he had described it in the 
same manner that I had, he told him to go and bring the whole of them 
up. Ahamed, in reply, inquired of the Consul if he would pay the ransom 
for us, together with all that I had promised him beside? 

The Consul then, directing his discourse to me, asked me what I had 
promised? whereupon I went on to tell him every promise I had made in 
that case, and he interpreted it to Ahamed, who acknowledged that my 
statement was correct; and the Consul said to him “Very well, that shall 
all be paid.” He also immediately paid off the Moor, and I added to it 
a bunch of good Virginia tobacco* The Consul, now addressing himself 
to Ahamed, said, “I order you to return to our men, and before the night 
of the third day, do you make your appearance before the gates of this 
city, together with all my brothers that are in your keeping.” “I will do 
it,” replied Ahamed, “if you will pay me my price for their ransom, and 
not otherwise; for Rais,” pointing to me, “assured me that if I would 
come here with him, he would return with me, and carry the money with 
him, and pay it there.” “The money,” replied the Consul to him, “shall 
not be paid there, but here. I never did, nor ever will pay money for 
my brothers until I can see them; and as to the price, I must see them 
before my mind can be made up with respect to it.” Ahamed continued 
to urge his claim till the Consul, becoming a little impatient, called his 
servant, and said to him, “Go to the governor, and tell him from me, that 
ten of my brothers are on this side of St. Cruz, in possession of the Arabs, 
who refuse to bring them up; and that I demand of him twenty soldiers 
to be dispatched for them immediately.” Ahamed attentively listened to 
these orders, and before the servant had reached the street door, he begged 
that he might be called back, and promised to go himself, and bring the 
men on ; accordingly he set off without delay. It was after he had gone, 
that the Consul told me the story which I have now related. 

As my fears with regard to the safety of my men were by no means at 
an end, I mentioned those fears to the Consul. “Quiet your mind,” he 
replied to me, “I have been here in this town for more than thirty years, 
and have ransomed from slavery a number of British subjects: I know 
what kind of people I have to deal with, and I know their language.” 
After this the Consul proposed to me to walk out with him, in order to 
see about the ransom of myself and my crew. We went to the house 
of William and Alexander Court, and found these gentlemen on the terrace- 
roofs of their dwelling. When I had made them acquainted with the 
object of our visit, and solicited them to advance a sufficient sum for the 
ransom of myself and crew, they manifested a desposition to relieve us, 
spoke in the highest terms of our Consul-General at Tangier, and told 
me we had an agent in the Road, and advised an immediate statement 
of our situation to him. 

We spent the afternoon and the evening at the Courts , and returned 
home to Consul Gwyn’s house at eleven. Soon I fell into a fine sleep, 
but after a short nap, I awoke, utterly insensible of my situation. Having 
lost all recollection of being at Mogadore, I sprung from my bed, nor did 
I conceive where I was, till I had walked across the room and looked 
out of the window into the yard. It was like a dream. I got my shoes, 
rolled the blanket round me, and walked the room for two hours. After 
wearying myself, I laid down again, and slept till morning, and arose very 
much refreshed. The Consul had now made his appearance, at an hour 


IN MOGADORE. 


107 

earlier than usual. According to his custom, he called upon his servant 
for breakfast, but, before it was ready, we had a long conversation together, 
relative to the situation I was in. 

After breakfast, we repaired to the counting-house of the two Courts, 
who instantly agreed to pay our ransom. They provided for me a courier 
to carry a letter to the Consul-General, and to that gentleman I wrote an 
account of my situation, stating to him all the particulars, and requesting 
him to point out to me the course I should pursue—observing that I 
considered myself subject to his direction. If I recollect aright, the 
courier, who went on foot in preference to riding, was to have thirty dollars 
for this service, and was to return in twenty-four days. He accomplished 
the undertaking by the time agreed on, and brought me an answer from 
that worthy character, couched in such tender and soothing language, as 
made an impression on my mind, which time can never efface. His con¬ 
gratulations with me on my release from cruel bondage, and his thanks 
to the Courts for their humane interference in my behalf, seemed spon¬ 
taneously to have flowed from the warmest of hearts. It was on the 
afternoon of the twentieth or twenty-first, when, from the terrace, I disco¬ 
vered my men. I went out to meet them, and the English sailors all 
followed me. As soon as we had come together, I hastily told them we 
were all safe; that though we had no American Consul here, we had 
friends enough. Joy was seen in every countenance. We all marched 
oft' together to the Consul’s house, where their names and ages were all 
taken down ; and having received a message from the governor, ordering 
us to repair to the Battery gate, we all went to it. Consul Gwyn was 
asked a few questions concerning us, the first of which was, whether we 
were Englishmen? He replied, we were not, but, what was the same thing, 
we were his brothers, and he wished to ransom and keep us. The 
governor asked me a few questions, particularly as to the place where 
we were wrecked, how many of our men had been left in the hands of 
the Arabs, and so forth. He then turned to the Arabs, and told them to 
bring all the Christians up as soon as they were wrecked, and not suffer 
them to perish in the desert; which injunction the Arabs promised to 
obey—and the governor then dismissed us. 

As soon as we had left the Battery, we went to the two Courts, who 
provided a room to lodge our men in; and our next attention was about 
our ransom. William, the younger of the two brothers, had been in this 
country for many years, and was well acquainted with the language, and 
with the nature and dispositions of the Arabs; and with him we had a 
long conference relative to the amount of the sum that should be paid for 
our ransom. “Giving a great ransom,” said he, “for Christian captives, 
and showing a strong desire to relieve them, is what has always had a 
direct tendency to retard their deliverance ; for when the Arabs find that 
a great price is given for Christian slaves, their avarice is excited, and 
their rich men buy them up to speculate upon. There have been in¬ 
stances,” continued he, “when, it being known that a large sum was offered 
for a certain number of Christians, they were bought up for the purpose 
of speculation, and the purchaser having come up here, and then getting 
a better offer, returned home, sold them to other speculators, who kept 
them for a still greater price, and detained them so long that some of 
them died of hard usage and of grief.” On the other hand, he said, if 
their ransom was very small, the inducement to bring them would be 
alike small; and he therefore thought it best to pursue a middle course. 
The Arabs were constantly at our heels for their pay, and were full of 


108 


BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 


promises to bring on our other men. The Consul and myself left them, 
and went to dine with a very respectable English merchant by the name 
of Jackson. 

When we returned home, after dinner, I found Ahamed waiting for me. 
He had become very much alarmed, for he had just found out that we 
were not Englishmen, but belonged to another country. I suspect that 
Jack had told him of this, with a view to alarm him, and create dissatis¬ 
faction in his mind. I confessed the fact, but through the same boy 
Jack I explained to him, that though we were inhabitants of another 
country, yet we were the same kind of people with the English. “You 
may see yourself,” I told him, “that we speak the same language, and 
that my friends here, as I told you before in the desert, take the same 
care of me as if I were an Englishman, and tasher Courts you may 
depend will pay you off to-morrow.” But notwithstanding what I said, 
he went away with the appearance of some jealousy that a trick was to 
be played upon him. The next morning I arose very early, and after 
walking upon the terrace for an hour, I took a walk to the market-place, 
Where I luckily met with a Mogadore Jew, whom I had seen at my 
friend Jackson’s. While I was talking with him, Ahamed hove in sight, 
walking toward us quickly. I told the Jew that the Arab coming was 
Ahamed, and begged of him to act as my interpreter with him, which he 
readily consented to do. We sat down under a wall, and there talked 
together an hour, and, during that time, I fully explained to Ahamed the 
particulars as to what country I belonged, how it became separated from 
the government of England, the harmony subsisting between the two 
countries, and the cause of my telling him that I was English. Ahamed 
heard me with the greatest attention, so that it seemed as if every word 
was imprinting itself in his mind ; and after I had done he replied, “You 
did very right in telling me that story, for if you had said that you were 
not English, but from some other country, we should have had nothing to 
do with you, as not expecting that anybody would pay your ransom, and, 
in that case, the mountaineers would have carried you back to their homes, 
and there you must have died:” he added, “what you have now told me, 
accounts for tasher Courts employing themselves in this matter, and I 
hope they will do justice to us.” Upon my telling him that that would 
be done, he asked me to name my country again, which I did several 
times, but he could not pronounce it well, though he came near it, calling 
it Amerk. Finally, he asked me if I had not forgotten my promises to 
his wives, and to Salear? A Moor’s shop being directly opposite, I bor¬ 
rowed a little money of the Jew, and went directly to it, and bought every 
little article that I had promised, and some other things beside, the whole 
costing, I believe, three dollars. Ahamed was remarkably well pleased 
with them, and hastened off, as I supposed, to his comrades. 

After this interview with the Arab, I returned home, where I found 
the Consul waiting breakfast for me. At the table the conversation was 
confined to our ransom, about which I felt very uncomfortable, as the 
amount of it might affect our men who were yet behind. The Consul 
recommended it to me to leave it with the two Courts to act according to 
their own judgments, saying they were both judicious men, and that 
William understood well these sort of people, and their language. Agree¬ 
ably to his advice, I kept at home, and the Courts paid them off, with 
such an amount as they thought proper. The Arabs craved more of 
course. As soon as this business was settled, Ahamed came to my room, 
and acknowledged the receipt of all that I had promised him, but blamed the 


THE STRANGER’S STORY. 


109 

Courts (whom I thought blameless) for not giving a higher ransom for us. 
Being one clay at my friend Jackson’s table, at dinner, the Consul sick 
at home the while, and none there but we two, a good-looking Moor, or 
Jew, (I cannot recollect which,) came in, having business with Jackson. 
He took a seat along side of him, and for some time they both seemed 
much engaged in conversation, in the Arabic. When their business 
seemed to be gone through with, he (the stranger) looked very attentively 
toward me, and began a conversation, of which, I found, from a few words 
I caught, that I was the subject, but could not conjecture as to the scope 
of it. They both laughed heartily, and, in conclusion, Jackson turned to 
me, and asked me if I had in my ship a keg of dollars in a barrel of beef? 
I answered yes ; and then he rehearsed to me this man’s story, as follows: 
“As I was down the Arab country on business,*(said this Moor, or Jew,) 
I heard of the wreck of a ship, and I concluded to go to it, thinking there 
might be an opening for a speculation. When I had arrived, 1 found 
there two or three hundred Arabs, the whole of those Arabs that first took 
possession of the wreck and crew having gone into the interior to sell 
their plunder and slaves. As to the cargo, they informed me there were 
no goods, but that they found in the bottom of the ship an earth^w hicli 
they did not know the use or value of, but thought, as it was in a ship, it 
must be valuable somewhere, and they wished me to look at it. I did so, 
and I found that they had divided it into little heaps, of which each of 
them had one to his share. On seeing this, 1 laughed at them heartily, 
and told them it was ballast, and of no more value than the sand they 
stood on. They were mortified in the extreme, and said they had been 
at work for several days in getting it ashore, and that in small quantities, as 
they had to dive for every pound of it. They told me they had got out 
most of the salted provisions, and were then finishing that job. About 
ten barrels of the salted provisions were then lying on the beach, which 
they were dividing, allowing one barrel to a certain number of men. 

When the barrels were opened for a subdivision, such of them as 
contained pork were rejected with abhorrence, and their owners were 
greatly mortified ; but every barrel of beef was divided among its joint 
owners by pieces. One of them, as he was taking the pieces out of one 
of the barrels, came to a keg, standing endwise, which was so heavy that 
he could not lift it by its hoops. This exciting curiosity, and many of 
them, by turns, trying to lift it, in the confusion the barrel was overset, 
and the keg rolled out of it. They soon got a stone and stove it to pieces, 
and, in so doing, the dollars flew out, the noise of which rallied together 
the whole gang, and it was then with them, catch who can. Each con¬ 
tended for his share so ferociously, and their cimeters were employed 
with such effect, that a great number were severely wounded, and some, 
it was thought, would die of their wounds. There being some barrels 
yet unopened, they all, as one, stove them to pieces, with stones, and 
searched them for more dollars, and, upon their finding none, a party 
swum to the ship, and searched there for more barrels, but in vain. The 
right owners of the barrel containing the dollars claimed the whole of 
them; upon which a council was called, and the chief presided; their 
pleas were able on both sides, but as I came off soon, I did not learn the 
result.”—Thus ended this stranger’s story, as given me by my friend 
Jackson, and thus it fared with my hidden treasure. 

A very lamentable instance of apostacy took place at Mogadore while 
I was there, and with one of the Martin Hall’s boys. The boy Jack, of 
whom I have so frequently made mention, was often missing from the 


110 BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 

Consul’s house, and whenever some one was sent in search of him, he 
was found in some Moorish house, evidently preferring their company. 
The Consul used to admonish him, and point out to him the evil tendency 
of keeping such company, but all to no purpose. At last he was missing 
a whole night, and in the morning following he was found in the company 
of several Moors, one of whom claimed him as his adopted son; and, at 
the same time, Jack declared that he had embraced the Mohammedan faith; 
ihathe had been circumcised, and had gone through their other ceremonies; 
and he claimed protection from the one whom he called his adopted father. 
This information was carried to the Consul, who was in much trouble on 
the occasion. One way only was left to reclaim or recover him out of 
their hands, and that was to make an application to the governor for that 
purpose, and accordingly an application was made. The governor’s reply 
was, “You shall have all the indulgence that our laws permit, which is 
this: examine the boy in my presence, from day to day, for three suc¬ 
cessive days, and if you can within that time persuade him to return to 
his former religion, you may receive him back; otherwise, as he has 
voluntarily come among us, and gone through our ceremonies, we are in 
duty bound to retain him.” The boy being sent for, and examined by 
the Consul, who did it in the Arabic language, he declared that he loved 
and esteemed his adopted father; that he had become a Mohammedan, and 
would never change from it. After the Consul had finished his part of 
the examination, the governor commenced, by asking Jack why he had 
changed his faith? His reply was, he did it because he believed the con¬ 
dition of the Mohammedans was preferable to that of the Christians ; that 
if he should continue in the religion he was then of, he should see God, 
and be saved; whereas the Christians were all to be damned. This 
lesson had, beyond doubt, been given him by his adopted father. The 
governor then asked him if he knew the prayers, and the meaning of 
them? He declared that he did, and went on to repeat them. Finally, he 
asked him if he understood the prayer of Ramadam? He said he did, and 
repeated it, without missing a word, though it is a very long one. The 
governor then dismissed him, and after he was gone, observed to the 
Consul, “The boy is safe.” The Consul continued every day throughout 
the afore-mentioned term of three days, in his endeavors to reclaim the 
boy, but at last was obliged to let him go. This story I had from Consul 
Gwyn’s own mouth at the time. When the three days had expired, a 
great rejoicing took place, a grand procession was formed, and boy Jack, 
mounted on a horse, moved round the city.in great style, the followers 
singing and shouting in a merry mood, gratified with the grand acquisition 
they had made, in bringing a poor ignorant Christian boy into the saving 
light of Mohammedanism! I saw Jack frequently afterward, but he always 
avoided me when it was in his power, and not only me, but all those 
belonging to the two other crews. 

One day about this time, while Consul Gwyn, John Foxcroft, and 
myself, were sitting together, engaged in conversation, a wild Arab, and 
one of the worst-looking kind, came up stairs, with a bundle, and wished 
to know if the Consul would buy some handsome cloth he had. In un¬ 
rolling the bundle, out rolled the two gown patterns of tabinet, which I 
had bought for my wife in Cork. The thoughts of my wife, and of the 
poor black man who had taken the patterns in his pack, saying, “Mistress 
shall have these yet ,” rushed so powerfully on my mind, and excited 
such violent emotions, that I could not refrain from turning aside, and 
giving vent to my anguish by a flow of tears. Foxcroft proposed to buy 


LEAVE MOGADORE. 


Ill 

the dark colored piece for his wife, and called her in; the Consul, on the 
contrary, took a fancy to the light colored piece, for waistcoat patterns. 
While Foxcroft’s wife was making her observations upon the tabinet, I 
told her the price of it in Ireland, and that I had bought there the two 
pieces for my wife. Upon which the two gentlemen immediately offered 
to relinquish the bargain to me, but being short of cash, I declined it, and 
desired them to proceed in the purchase. Each took a piece, and paid 
the Arab for it, according to my recollection, two dollars. I did not ex¬ 
pect to hear or see any more of it; but the next morning, in taking out a 
clean shirt from my trunk, I discovered that some person had been to it, 
and, upon examination, I found that the light colored gown pattern had 
been placed at the bottom in such a manner as might prevent me from 
discovering it. It is needless to mention what took place respecting it, 
afterward; suffice it to repeat, my wife got her gown, and wears it to 
this day. 

Some time about the middle of July, a Portuguese schooner arrived 
from Lisbon, chartered by the house of the Bulkleys of that place. She 
brought some goods suitable for that market, in order to take in a return 
cargo of the products of this country, and was consigned to the house 
of William and Alexander Court. The schooner was loaded with dispatch, 
with what skins had been procured for her, and as to the rest, was filled 
with wheat. She being the first vessel that was to sail, I engaged our 
passage to Lisbon in her. When she was nearly ready for departure, the 
Consul sent for Pat, who had left our men’s lodging-place long before, 
and was harbored by a countryman of his in town, a cooper by trade: he 
sent for him to inform him that he was to go with us to Lisbon. Pat 
refused to come, and sent word back that he durst not go with us, for that 
the mate and some others of our crew had threatened to kill him when¬ 
ever they had him in their power. The Consul desired me to speak to 
him, and tell him he must go. I did so; but he declared that he was 
afraid of his life, and had no doubt but we would destroy him before he 
could reach Europe. My promises to the contrary had no good effect 
upon him, and he remained behind. When the time had come for us to 
leave the port, (I think it was the twenty-seventh of July,) our stores 
having been all previously put on board, and notice being sent to the 
governor, we, with all our baggage, accompanied by the Consul and 
many of my Mogadore friends, went to the beach. Our captain, who was 
an easy, slow kind of man, declined going to sea before the next morning, 
although the wind was fair, and the weather fine. His accommodations 
were small, but yet they were very comfortable, nor was he wanting in 
disposition to render our situation pleasant. I could not persuade him 
to go to sea till the afternoon, when we got under weigh and left the port, 
going round to the west of Mogadore island. The vessel was a very dull 
sailer, and the winds being moderate and light, we had been at sea twenty 
days when we made the rock of Lisbon, right ahead, with a fair wind. 

On the twenty-seventh of September, in the morning, according to the 
best of my recollection, we were examined by the health officer, and 
permitted to land. After we had gone through with some little ceremony 
at an office at Belem, we were once more at our liberty on a Christian 
shore. A captain Hand, of Charleston, was at Belem with his boat, who 
gave me a passage to Lisbon, where we arrived about eleven o’clock. 
I immediately visited the American Consul, who treated me with great 
kindness, and sent a servant to show me to my lodgings, where I had 
scarcely got seated, when a gentleman accosted me to know who I was. 


112 


BONDAGE AMONG THE ARABS OF THE DESERT. 


On my telling him of my situation, which was done with great brevity, 
he asked me if I wished to go home? and, upon my answering that I did, 
he said to me, “I have a good ship which will be ready to sail for Balti¬ 
more in two days; in her you are welcome to a passage.” His kind 
offer I readily accepted, and told him I would call on our Consul, who 
had offered me money, and to furnish my stores. His reply was, “My 
good Sir, I did not offer you a half-way passage ; my stores are all laid 
in, of which you ate to partake with me; go on board as soon as you 
please.” I could scarcely find words to reply to this generous man 
His name was Norman, and his ship was the Perseverance, of Baltimore; 
she was a fine coppered ship, of 340 tons. I now furnished myself with 
some thick clothes, and repaired on board the Perseverance. I think we 
left the river Tagus on the second or third of October. Although our ship 
was a fast sailer, yet by reason of our having had either light or contrary 
winds, we did not arrive at Baltimore till about the eighteenth of November. 
I arrived at Hudson, among my dear friends and relatives, after an absence 
of one year, to a day; that is to say, from the first of December 1800, to 
the first of the same month, 1801. 


THE ABANDONMENT 


OP 


ALEXANDER SELKIRK. 

A 8COTTI8H BAILOR, ON THE ISLAND OF JOAN FERNANDEZ, WHERE HE DWELT 

IN SOLITUDE FOR SEVERAL YEARS. 


Alexander Selkirk, the undoubted original of Defoe’s celebrated 
character, Robinson Crusoe, was born in the year 1676, in the village of 
Largo, on the southern coast of the county of Fife in Scotland. The 
name of Selkirk (or Selcraig, which was the old mode of spelling it,) is 
not an uncommon one in the village, the population of which now 
considerably exceeds two thousand. 

John Selkirk, the father of Alexander, was a thriving shoemaker, who 
lived in a house of his own—which has since been pulled down—at the 
west end of the town. He appears to have been a man of strict temper, 
respected for his steady and religious character, and, like the majority 
of Scottish parents at that time, a severe disciplinarian in his family. 
The name of his wife was Euphan Mackie, also, it would seem, a native 
of Largo, and reported by tradition to have been the very contrast of her 
husband in her parental conduct—as yielding and indulgent as he was 
rigorous. In the case of Alexander, however, there was a special reason 
why Mrs. Selkirk should prove a kind and pliant mother. Not only was 
she considerably advanced in years at the time of his birth, but, by a 
chance not very common, he was her seventh son, born without an inter¬ 
mediate daughter, and therefore destined, according to an old Scottish 
superstition, to come to great fortune, and make a figure in the world. 
Mrs. Selkirk firmly believed this, and made no doubt that her son Sandie 
was to be the great man of the family. He was therefore her pet; and 
the greater part of her maternal care, in respect to his education, consisted 
in confidential discourses with him by the fireside, when the rest of the 
family were absent, and in occasional consultations how they should screen 
some little misdemeanor from the eyes of his father. 

Young Selkirk was a clever enough boy, and quickly learned all that 
was taught at the school of his native town. Beside reading, writing, and 
arithmetic, he is said to have made considerable progress in navigation— 
a branch of knowledge likely to be of some repute in Largo, not only on 
account of its being a seacoast town, with a considerable fishing population, 
but also in consequence of its having been the birthplace and property of 
$ir Andrew Wood, a distinguished Scottish admiral of the preceding 
century, whose nautical fame and habits must have produced considerable 
impression on it. At all events, whether owing to the ideas he received 
at school, or to the effect on his mind of the perpetual spectacle of the 
sails in Largo Bay, and of his constant association with the Largo fisher¬ 
men, Selkirk early determined to follow a seafaring life. Either out of 
a disposition to let the boy have his own will, or as thinking the life of a> 

8 (113) 



ABANDONMENT OF SELKIRK. 


114 

sailor the likeliest way to the attainment of the great fortunes which she 
anticipated for her son, his mother favored his intention; his father, 
however, opposed it strenuously, and was anxious, now that his other sons 
were all settled in life, that his youngest should remain at home, and 
assist him in his own trade. This, and young Selkirk’s wayward and 
obstinate conduct, seem to have kept him and his father perpetually at 
war; and a descendant of the family used to show a walking-stick which 
the old man is said to have applied to the back of his refractory son, with 
the affirmation, “A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for 
the fool’s back.” Notwithstanding the boy’s restless character, respect 
for his father’s wishes kept him at home for a considerable time: a father’s 
malediction being too awful a thing for even a seventh son to brave with 
impunity. 

The first thirteen years of Selkirk’s life coincide with the hottest period 
of the religious persecutions in Scotland. He was about three years 
of age at the time of the assassination of Archbishop Sharp, which took 
place at not a very great distance from Largo ; and the chief subject of 
interest, during his boyhood, in Fife, as in the other counties of Scotland, 
was the position of the church, then filled by Episcopalian and indulged 
clergy, greatly to the disgust of the people. What part old Selkirk and 
his family may have taken during the time when it was dangerous to show 
attachment to Presbytery—whether they professed themselves Covenan¬ 
ters, or whether, as is more probable, they yielded a reluctant attendance 
at the parish church—cannot be ascertained ; but the following entry in 
the parish records of Largo, referring to the year 1689, immediately after 
the revolution had sealed the restoration of Presbytery in Scotland, 
will show that if they did attend the parish church, it was not out of 
lukewarmness to the popular cause, or affection for the established clergy¬ 
man:—“Sabbath- 1689.—Which day, the minister being obstructed in 

his duty, and kept out of the church by a great mob, armed with staves and 
bludgeons, headed by John Selkirk, divided what money there was among 
the poor, and retired from his charge.” John Selkirk, who thus signalized 
himself by heading the mob for the expulsion of the conforming clergyman, 
was the eldest brother of our hero, who, however, is reported himself to 
to have testified his enthusiasm by flourishing a stick with the other boys. 

One of the first youths in Largo to experience the stricter discipline 
of Presbytery, whose restoration he had celebrated, was Alexander 
Selkirk. His high spirits, and want of respect for any control, led him, 
it would appear, to be guilty of frequent misbehavior during divine service; 
for under date the twenty-fifth of August, 1695, is the following entry 
in the parish records:—“Alexander Selcraig, son of John Selcraig, elder, 
cited to appear before the session for indecent conduct in church.” This 
seems to have been more than our hero, now in his nineteenth year, could 
submit to. The elder’s son to appear before the session, and be rebuked 
for laughing in church! Within twenty-four hours after this terrible 
citation the young shoemaker was gone ; he had left Largo and the land 
of kirk-sessions behind him, and was miles away at sea. When the kirk- 
session met, they were obliged to be content with inserting the following 
paragraph in the record:—“August twenty-seventh.—Alexander Selcraig 
called out—did not appear, having gone to sea.” Resolved, however, 
that he should not escape the rebuke which he had merited, they add, 
“ Continued until his return.” 

The return which the kirk-session thus looked forward to, did not take 
place for six years, during which we have no account of Selkirk’s 



ABANDONMENT OF SELKIRK. 


115 

adventures, although the probability is, that he served with the buccaneers, 
who then scoured the South Seas. To have persisted in calling the young 
sailor to account for a fault committed six years before, would have been 
too great severity. The kirk-session, accordingly, do not seem to have 
made any allusion to the circumstance which had driven him to sea; but 
it was not long before a still more disgraceful piece of misconduct than 
the former brought him under their censure. The young sailor, coming 
home, no doubt, with his character rendered still more reckless and 
boisterous than before by the wild life to which he had been accustomed 
at sea, was hardly a fit inmate for a sedate and orderly household, and 
quarrels and disturbances became frequent in the honest shoemaker’s 
cottage. In the spring of 1702, Selkirk seized an opportunity of going to 
England; and a short time afterward we find him engaged to proceed 
with the celebrated Dampier on a buccaneering expedition to the South 
Seas. 

The object of Dampier’s voyage was either to capture some of the 
Spanish vessels, which annually carried to the old world the products of 
the gold and silver mines of the new, or to seize and put to ransom some of 
the cities of the Spanish Main. Beside his own vessel, the “St. George,” 
Dampier had with him the “ Cinque Ports,” commanded by Captain 
Stradling, on board of which Selkirk acted as sailing-master. After 
several months of ill-luck and misfortune, the two commanders quarreled, 
and finally agreed to separate—Selkirk remaining with the latter. 

For three months the Cinque Ports kept cruising along the shores of 
Mexico, Guatemala, and Equatorial America, like a villainous vulture 
watching the horizon for its prey. No ships, however, appeared to reward 
the greedy activity of the crew; and at length, in the end of August, 
Stradling resolved to turn southward, and make for Juan Fernandez, to 
take in provisions and refit. Meanwhile, as was natural among so many 
men of savage character cooped up idle in a vessel, all was dissension on 
board. Stradling and Selkirk especially were, to use a common phrase, 
at daggers-drawing ; now in loud and angry dispute below, now scowling 
sullenly at each other on deck. Selkirk resolved to leave the vessel as 
soon as an opportunity offered. Accordingly, when, the beginning of 
September, they came in sightof Juan Fernandez, two men, left by Dampier 
on a previous occasion, who had been living on the island since the be¬ 
ginning of March—made their appearance, healthy and strong as ever, 
and delighting their old companions with an account of how they had 
spent the seven months of their solitary reign, eating fruit in abundance, 
chasing goats, and hunting seals, the idea flashed across his mind that he 
would take their place, and, leaving the vessel to sail away without him, 
remain the possessor of Juan Fernandez. By what process of imagination 
he flattered himself that such a life would be agreeable; whether he 
finally adopted his resolution in a fit of unthinking enthusiasm, such as 
sometimes leads to strange and whimsical acts, or whether his differences 
with Stradling, and his disgust with his situation on board the Cinque 
Ports, were really such that escape by any method seemed advisable, 
cannot now be known; but at all events, the conclusion was, that when 
the vessel was ready to leave the island, Selkirk signified his intention 
of remaining. Stradling made no objections; a boat was lowered, Selkirk 
descended into it with all his effects, three or four men rowed him ashore 
under the direction of the captain, the crew of the Cinque Ports looking 
on from the deck. Selkirk leaped on the beach, his effects were lifted 
out after him by the sailors, and laid in a heap; they shook hands with 


1 - 


A3UTD051ETT O 2 


V 


r. -T: bearnhr. the r ~ in the :oil zzc bid&* izerz nabe 

hirer Tze —ped zz. zdz tit boat ^ls pasbec of. ?:or 

Selkirk! be zaz fek t bn—d. lz ij eh aha of spirit a: the 3:-ri: z: 
sifiy_ir c*z szore . but zr-w. as the boat 77 L5 sbtTec of. lzz tit® r- z et: 

QOWL *C ZZr GLT5 ¥fil tbeJT ft 1 "r tOUrd I—H~ pDOr. LZrer. TfSC^tt302. L_] 

rt 7 t if l t ; lire horror? of iz stsoko rifse lz oace to :? view. lzz 
ru 5 z_zv Jio tze surf no zo tze mi-die. ze stretched oz: z ? zlzzs iowltz 
':» ec-raies. LZid inflated tbexL to one back asd zak e rtz or board 
ltzji. "^hth l f-rzrr Lzrz toe brntt- cci t rider ba.de ziza sz:£ zo z * 


reec-ict-an. lz: reizLiz -szere 


r Fti, lz: 


it yob a mb 


^ tor 

Lz crew to zL^e 50 : rz lz iLS. of >0 zrosblesozae l ^3ot Tze >:a: 
accordingly Tri: n& z& tbe snip. lz z zz l s zor tzze tbe Cx*: ze Ports w*« 
oz: o: sight. be Ikirk retzaizez or tbe dea.cz beside z^ zzzz.es. ,~ zzzr 
after her til] it grew dark. 

Jzlz Ferzazeez. tie jlsad am which oar poor Scoter zzlz was thus 
cast ashore. if staac.ec zz latitaie 33 degrees -Pi rzzzuzez sozzz. aad 
loogitode “f cegree* about four hzzzrez z z* ^es: o: tbe coast 

of CiOL Tze llzz .z proper 7 applied to l graop of isiaz-z? coariBirtr 
of wo larger lzz l few sraalier : lzz tze nasoe mht gbe® to tzar in¬ 
habited by .bejEzriL. lzz which if tllL 1L ” V- st of the rrozz. _z Mae-L-zerra. 
Tze islaad was nrsi d_z-zo 7 erez zz 157E. by l Spaziez aniyzzor. who 
conferred oz it bzz owz zazze of Jzlz Fernandez: lzz far l short zzze 
it w lz Ttr^Mtec iy l *zzl_ coktaj of bzfLZ-L’dz. ^ik) hkimazely abaodonez 
k, zio-we^er. to seize or tbe rzazL.Lzd. Ar.ersrc.TZ. lz ^e bare efreazT 
sezz. it z*eeaiiie l 'ezzr of szzz zzc-rLzeerii-p 7 ezr-e.? az rezz rez curzag 
tz>e'r cnize* oz tbe cols: of Anerica. to pat zz to sozze zlz z narbor 
to TrCZZZ LZZ TeZZ ObVt OT tlTC€. ZJ LZir ZZZZ *.Ze -F LZid zaz becooe 
tbe rez^ieze-r of l clszl^lt booesae^ Trbc - lz after wain pkzed off by 

l zlzzjlz f: ;. Tzzz. st; * l TorageT witozz we szc_ zt' e jtz to czote 

zoore l* ia T pe. ~ Eiagr»e- zz bis aceorcn: of tze vo; tpt of Catzaiz bzarp 
lzz other baccaaeets. izeztjoitz oze wz*o zlz escaz*ec azz^re oz tab jFiLzd 
oz: of l fz;p. which -» lz cast l^ l; wzz a. tze res: of tze oorz zzy. lzz 
flj* ze iirez fre yez^? aU»e. oefo-e ze zlc tze opponcaty of tzotzer 
?z p to carry zz of C’Ltftain i>zzt er a; so taas o: l Mosztro Jzcf z 
tZLt ze joined to C"LZ*-L_i Warihi. wzo. zejzr l zziL-zr* z zze w»d* w»ez 
the captaia ief. tze iszczz bred tzere tzree yetr? LjO*^. tJl Ctptabi 
I>Lzz.er carze hitzer ia 1 f i4. lzz carried r. r. off' ‘'‘zakerre' atzozzl 
o: troth tzere :zlt ze m tzese particaiar stateizeir.f a? to Jan Fentaadez, 
it is oe.rLZ zu Seiaira'* solitary resideoce oz tab z.azc wzs zt zo zetzi 
tze first msttzoe of tze izt It does zot appear to zt T e zees az ea- 
cozrzoz tzzzp for l zoocaLeer ia hzose ztys to ze e.tzer cast ashore oz l 
deser. biaiid zy tze czazce* of st pwreck, or to ze ptrzzseiy ieft upon 
ore tr* kb cLp*-az out of st ave lii-wll^ or as l pttL^sLioezt for rzzrhuoof 
CCZ 1 C.- 0 L Perzap*. f tze recora?of >ic Toyarre* vere tzorozvz.) sea*tied, 
oataoeea Might he had of the triad a ettnafiauj a Befixiik if at 
more so. Tze iza* e tour a. zowerer. of tze zaze of l veziu* ta* 
otz'erez l y z: :te ; :V;t :e zze- ze.' •.* • 

(Ls-.zt'U-sze* tut f'oit a_ other Cmszef. 

To proceed will our cescr.pt»a of Jeaz Feraazdez. Tze bSazd > 
ef az irrt^xiar form. fr«x ten* to twe/re il ^es ioai'. aze about eix broad, 
aret ze.z^' azozt ferreir.y soua'e n ,es—'fliirwir* ±eef tzat tea*, of 
tze -kaze of rt- te. “ Tze so:tz-vest f,oef st}6 tze royaler already 
qootec. ~ ^ tzuoz tze ^oitgeasa azz zat t siza. b.aiz azovt l iz ^e io: i? 
iy-a e ' zea r ru -r.tz l few T^^e rooas c—e tzter tze tzz:e ^zz r :* 












A3A3TD01HE5T OF 


117 


side begins i ridge of high mountains. that run across fro cl the south-west 
to the north-we?* of the island: and tne land that lies oat in i narrow 
point to the westward appear? to be tne only level ground in it. On the 
■ortbeaal side i: :? very high land, and under it are the two bay? wnere 
-hips alw^y? pot in to recruit. The best boy s ait deep water, and too 
may carry La snips close to the rooks, if occasion recuire. The wind 
blow? ai w ays over the land. and at worst along shore, whicn maxes no 
?ea- Near tne ro-cks there are very good ash of several sorts, namcniarly 
large era wish tinder the rooks, easy to be cacght; also cavailoes. gropers, 
and other good nsh. in so great plenty anywnere near the shore, mat I 
never saw me hie bat ai the best f shrug season in NedooidiaiidL 
Pimento is the best timber, and most plentiful on this side of the island, 
but very apt to spirt, till a little dried. Tne cabbage-trees abound about 
three mires into the woods, and the cabbage is very good; most of them 
are on tne top of the nearest and lowest mountains. The soil in tnese 
hills is of a loose black earth ; tne rocks are very rotten, so that, without 
great care, it is dirgeroos to climb the hkis for cabbages ; beside, mere 
are abundance of noles dag in several places by a sort of fowl? cal.ed 
pcmn?. which canse the earn to fair in at once. and end anger the breaking 
of a man's leg. Oar simmer moths are wnter here. In Jaiy snow and 
ee are sometimes seen: bat the spring, which is in September.October, 
mi November, is very pleasant. There is then ai and ance of nood herbs, 
is parsley, pars.am. etc. To these descriptions, written about the year 
171 £. we may add an extract from the account gives in Lord Anson’s 
voy ages in 1741. in order that oar readers may hive a pretty distinct idea 
of tne irreiran.ee of the island, which, tor four years and a half, wis to 
be the home of Selkirk. ** The woods.” says the author of Anson’s 
voyages, -cover most of the steepest ids. and are free from ah bashes 
mi unde-wood, offering m easy passage througn every part of them ; 
mi tne irregularities of the hills and precipices in the northern part 
of the island trace, by their var oas combinations, a number of romantic 
valle ys, most of which have a stream of me clearest water running through 
them, tnmbmg in cascades croc: rock to rock. Some particular spots 
occur r tnese valleys where the shade o tne contiguous woods, the 
loftiness of the overhang:ng rocks, and tne transrirency and frequent fms 
of tne streams, present scenes of wonderful beauty.” 

F nr many days after the departure of tne Cinque Pots. Selkirk remained 
lingering about the spot wnere he wi? put ashore, unable to ibaucon the 
hope that Stradling would relent and come back for him. His constant 
occupation wus mminn out into the sea. As soon as morning dawned he 
began his waten. suing on his chest; and his deepest grief was when 
i i-:i u n s in. s: in: : could see n; n u " b s ep nn upon 
him by snitches, and lgamst his exert ens to reman awake. Food he 
did hoc tnmi of. tiU extreme hunger obliged hitn: and men. rather than 
ro in search of the fruits and name wn.ch the woods afforded, he con¬ 
tented hi nose lx* with the sheli-hsh md s' a. s’ desh. which ne could obtain 
without removmn boa the beach. Tne sameness of the diet, the want 
of bread and salt, and the sinking sickness of ms heart, caused him to 
oatr.e his food, so tb it he ate but at long intervals. Weary, and w th 
*ch in eves, ne lay do *n it night, learning his back against bus bundles, 
listening to the eras', ug sound of rocks frequently fail ng among the 
woods, and to tne c scoremit men_mc oi the snoals ot seals mo g tuts src~e. 
The horrors of his situation were augmented during the dark by super- 
. ;s a.~: s Am u . : _ urn : : • a- -is . m_ - fumy - • m 




ABANDONMENT OF SELKIRK. 


118 

howlings and whistlings, as of spirits in the air: if he turned his head to 
the black and wooded masses behind him, they seemed peopled and in 
motion; and as he again turned it to the shore, phantoms stalked past. 
Often he cursed himself for the folly of the resolution which had brought 
him here ; often, in the frenzy of fear, he would start up with the horrible 
determination of suicide ; but a rush of softer feeling would come, and 
then he became calm. At length this gentler state of mind grew habitual; 
thoughts and impressions which had been familiar to him in childhood 
again came up; and the years which he had spent with brawling and 
ferocious shipmates, in the lawless profession of a privateer, were swept 
out of his memory like a disagreeable dream. 

With the return of equanimity, Selkirk began to consider the means 
of rendering his residence on the island endurable. It was the month 
of October—a season corresponding in that locality to the middle of spring 
with us—and all was blooming and fragrant. The possibility of starving 
was not one of the horrors which his situation presented; and when he 
recovered calmness of mind sufficient to take a view of his solitary domain, 
he found himself in the midst of plenty. Beside the fish and seals which 
swarmed round the shores of the island, there were innumerable fruits 
and vegetables in the woods, among which was the never-failing cabbage- 
tree ; and hundreds of goats skipped wild among the hills. Almost all 
the means of ordinary physical comfort were within his reach ; and he 
had only to exert his strength and ingenuity to make the island yield him 
its resources. How he proceeded to do this; the various shifts and 
devices which he fell upon to supply his wants, and to add gradually to 
his store of comforts; the succession of daily steps and contrivances by 
which, in the course of four years and a half, he raised himself from 
comparative helplessness to complete dominion over the resources of his 
little territory; and, along with this, the various stages which his feelings 
went through, from the agony and stupefaction of the first night which he 
spent on the island, to the perfect freedom and happiness which ho 
ultimately attained—we have not sufficient materials to be able to describe 
in detail. It is needless to say that the matchless narrative of Defoe is 
almost entirely a fiction, so far as the details of his hero’s daily life in 
the desert island are concerned. Alexander Selkirk did not display such 
a genius for mechanical contrivances as Robinson Crusoe ; or, at least, if 
he did, no record of his contrivances has been preserved. The island 
was not visited by cannibal savages as is the case in the romance; no 
faithful Friday appeared to cheer the hours of the solitary ; nor is there 
any journal preserved, from which we learn whether ever such an incident 
occurred as the discovery of the mysterious foot-print in the sand. All 
these ornaments of the story the world owes to Defoe, whose object was 
not to write the history of Selkirk, or any other known castaway, but to 
describe, by the force of imagination, the life of an ideal hero on an ideal 
desert island. At the same time, there is no doubt that Defoe’s narrative 
fills up our conception of Selkirk’s long residence in his island with 
details such as must actually be true ; and, at all events, there is a corres¬ 
pondence in some points between it and Selkirk’s own account of his 
manner of life, furnished after his return to England to Sir Richard Steele 
and others, through whom it was made public. The particulars of this 
narrative, so far as it extends, we proceed to relate. 

The stores which Selkirk had brought asho:e consisted, beside his 
clothing and bedding, of a firelock, a pound of gunpowder, a quantity 
of bullets, a flint and steel, a few pounds of tobacco, a hatchet, a knife, a 


ABANDONMENT OF SELKIRK. 


119 


kettle, a flip-can, a Bible, some books of devotion, and one or two con¬ 
cerning navigation, and his mathematical instruments. Such were the 
few implements and substances from the great civilized world which 
Selkirk had to help him in the task of subduing to his own convenience 
seventy square miles of earth and wood. Yet, in the possession of that 
small package, what strength lay in his hands, and how superior was he 
to the savage children of nature! Within the small compass of his chest 
was wrapped up the condensed skill and wisdom of ages, the ingenuity and 
industry of hundreds of men who had long gone to their graves. The 
flint and steel, the firelock, the gunpowder, the knife and hatchet, what 
power over nature was there not compact in these articles!—the mathe¬ 
matical instruments, of what knowledge were they not the symbols!—and, 
above all, the Bible, and the books which accompanied it, what wealth 
of conversation, what health of spirit, did they not bring with them! 

The first object that occupied his attention, beside the daily supply of 
such food as was necessary for his subsistence, was the construction of a 
dwelling to serve him as a shelter from the weather. Selecting a spot at 
some distance from the beach, he cut down pimento wood, and in a short 
time built a hut in which he could reside. To this he afterward added 
another. They were both constructed during the first eighteen months 
of his residence; but the task of improving them, and adding to their 
neatness, was a constant occupation to him during his stay on the island. 
The larger of his two huts, which “was situated near a spacious wood, 
he made his sleeping-room, spreading the bedclothes he had brought 
with him upon a frame of his own construction; and as these wore out, 
or were used for other purposes, he supplied their places with goat-skins. 
The smaller hut, which he had erected at some distance from the other, 
was used by him as a kitchen, in which he dressed his victuals. The 
furniture was very scanty, but consisted of every convenience his island 
could afford. His most valuable article was the pot or kettle he had 
brought from the ship to boil his meat in ; the spit was his own handiwork, 
made of such wood as grew upon the island; the rest was suitable to his 
rudely constructed habitation. The pimento wood, which burns very 
bright and clear, served him both for fuel and candle. It gives out an 
agreeable perfume when burning. He obtained fire, after the Indian 
method, by rubbing two pieces of pimento wood together until they ignited. 
This he did, as he was ill able to spare any of his linen for tinder, time 
being of no value to him, and the labor rather an amusement!” The 
necessity of providing for his wants had the effect of diverting his thoughts 
from the misery of his situation; yet every day, for the first eighteen 
months, he spent more or less time on the beach, watching for the ap¬ 
pearance of a sail upon the horizon. At the end of that time, partly 
through habit, partly through the influence of religion, which here 
awakened in full force upon his mind, he became reconciled to his 
situation. Every morning after rising he read a portion of Scripture, 
sang a psalm, and prayed, speaking aloud, in order to preserve the use 
of his voice; he afterward remarked that, during his residence on the 
island, he was a better Christian than he had ever been before, or would 
probably ever be again. He at first lived much upon turtles and crawfish, 
which abounded upon the shores—his powder, with which he could shoot 
the goats of the island, having soon been exhausted, he afterward 
found himself able to run down the goats, whose flesh he either roasted 
or stewed, and of which he kept a small stock, tamed, around his dwelling, 
to be used in the event of his being disabled by sickness. One of the 


ABANDONMENT OF SELKIRK. 


120 

greatest inconveniences which afflicted him for the first few months was 
the want of salt; but he gradually became accustomed to this privation, 
and at last found so much relish in unsalted food, that, after being restored 
to society, it was with equal difficulty that he reconciled himself to take it 
in any other condition. As a substitute for bread, he had turnips, parsnips, 
and the cabbage-palm, all of excellent quality, and also radishes, and 
water-cresses. When his clothes were worn out, he supplied their place 
with goat-skins, which gave him an appearance much more uncouth than 
any wild animal. He had a piece of linen, from which he made new 
shirts by means of a nail and the thread of his stockings; and he never 
wanted this comfortable piece of attire during the whole period of his 
residence on the island. Every physical want being thus gratified, and 
his mind soothed by devotional feeling, he at length began positively to 
enjoy his existence—often lying for whole days in the delicious bowers 
which he had formed for himself, abandoned to the most pleasant 
sensations. 

Among the quadruped inhabitants of the isle were multitudes of rats, 
which at the first annoyed him by gnawing his feet while asleep. Against 
this enemy he found it necessary to enter into a treaty, offensive and 
defensive, with the cats, which also abounded in his neighborhood. 
Having caught and tamed some of the latter animals, he was soon freed 
from the presence of the rats, but not without some disagreeable conse¬ 
quences in the reflection that, should he die in his hut. his friendly 
auxiliaries would probably be obliged, for their subsistence, to devour 
his body. He was, in the meantime, able to turn them to some account 
for his amusement, by teaching them to dance and perform a number of 
antic feats, such as cats are not in general supposed capable of learning, 
but which they might probably acquire, if any individual in civilized life 
were able to take the necessary pains. Another of his amusements was 
hunting on foot, in which he at length, through healthy exercise and habit, 
became such a proficient, that he could run down the swiftest goat. 
Some of the young of these animals he taught to dance in company with 
his kittens; and he often afterward declared that he never danced with a 
lighter heart or greater spirit than to the sound of his own voice in the 
midst of these dumb companions. 

Selkirk was careful, during his stay on the island, to measure the lapse 
of time, and distinguish Sunday from the other days cf the week. Anxious, 
in the midst of all his indifference to society, that, in the event of his 
dying in solitude, his having lived there might not be unknown to his 
fellow-creatures, he carved his name upon a number of trees, adding the 
date of his being left, and the space of time which had since elapsed. 
When his knife was worn out, he made new ones, and even a cleaver 
for his meat, out of some hoops which he found on the shore. He several 
times saw vessels passing the island, but only two cast anchor beside it. 
Afraid of being taken by the Spaniards, who would have consigned him 
to hopeless captivity, he endeavored to ascertain whether these strangers 
were so or not before making himself known. In both cases he found 
them enemies; and on one of the occasions, having approached too near, 
he was observed and chased, and only escaped by taking refuge in a tree. 

As Selkirk was only about thirty years of age, and as he found his 
constitution, which was naturally good, improved and fortified in a won¬ 
derful degree by his mode of life, the only cause which he could fear 
as likely to cut short his days, and prevent him from reaching the old age 
which he might expect to attain to in his island, provided no ship appeared 


ABANDONMENT OF SELKIRK. 


121 

to carry him off, was the occurrence of some accident, such as might very 
possibly befall him in his expeditions through the woods. Only one such 
accident occurred during his stay on the island: it had nearly proved 
fatal, however. It has already been mentioned that, in many parts of 
the island, the soil was loose, and undermined by holes, and the rock 
weathered almost to rottenness. Pursuing a goat once in one of these 
dangerous places, the bushy brink of a precipice, to which he had fol¬ 
lowed it, crumbled beneath him, and he and the goat fell together from 
a great height. He lay stunned and senseless at the foot of the rock for 
a great while—not less than twenty-four hours, he thought, from the 
change of position in the sun—but the precise length of time he had no 
means of ascertaining. When he recovered his senses, he found the 
goat lying dead beside him. With great pain and difficulty he made his 
way to his hut, which was nearly a mile distant from the spot; and for three 
days he lay on his bed, enduring much suffering. No permanent injury, 
however, had been done him, and he was soon able to go abroad again. 

Four years and four months had elapsed since Selkirk was left by 
Stradling on the island of Juan Fernandez. It was now the month of 
January, 1709; his reckoning enabled him to know the lapse of time, at 
least within a week or two. Four times had the January summers of 
Juan Fernandez passed over his head, and already he was looking forward 
to the coming of the fifth autumn and winter. The whole island was 
now familiar to him, with its appearances and productions at various 
seasons. Custom had reconciled him to it; had almost brought him to 
regard it as his home; had almost made him cease to remember with 
regret the world from which he was an outcast. Occasionally, indeed, 
such thoughts as the poet has supposed must have occurred to him even 
now, after so long a period of acquaintance with solitude. 

“ I am monarch of all I survey, 

My right there is none to dispute: 

From the center, all round to the sea, 

I am lord of the fowl and the brute. 

Oh, solitude ! where are the charms, 

That sages have seen in thy face? 

Better dwell in the midst of alarms. 

Than reign in this horrible place. 

I am out of humanity’s reach, 

I must finish my journey alone. 

Never hear the sweet music of speech ; 

I start at the sound of my own. 

The beasts that roam over the plain. 

My form with indifference see; 

They are so unacquainted with man, 

Their tameness is shocking to me. 

Society, friendship, and love. 

Divinely bestowed upon man, 

Oh, had I the wings of a dove, 

How soon would I taste you again ! 

My sorrows I then might assuage 
In the ways of religion and truth. 

Might learn from the wisdom of age. 

And be cheered by the sallies of youth. 


ABANDONMENT OF SELKIRK. 


. 122 

Religion ! what treasure untold, 

Resides in that heavenly word ! 

More precious than silver and gold. 

Or all that this earth can afford. 

But the sound of the church-going bell 
These valleys and rocks never heard, 

Never sighed at the sound of a knell. 

Or smiled when a Sabbath appeared. 

Ye winds, that have made me your sport, 

Convey to this desolate shore 

Some cordial endearing report 
Of a land I shall visit no more. 

My friends, do they now and then send 
A wish or a thought after me ? 

Oh 1 tell me I yet have a friend, 

Though a friend I am never to see! 

How fleet is a glance of the mindl 

Compared with the speed of its flight, 

The tempest itself lags behind, 

And the swift-winged arrows of light! 

When I think of my own native land, 

In a moment I seem to be there ; 

But, alas ! recollection at hand 
Soon hurries me back to despair. 

But the sea-fowl is gone to her nest, 

The beast is laid down in his lair ; 

Even here is a season of rest. 

And I to my cabin repair. 

There’s mercy in every place : 

And mercy, encouraging thought I 

Gives even affliction a grace. 

And reconciles man to his lot.” 

These thoughts, however, were not habitual. Even the idea of dying 
alone, and leaving his bones stretched out, to be found some day, at the 
distance of years, by those whom chance might bring to his moldering 
hut in the woods, ceased to affect him sorrowfully. The religious im¬ 
pressions of his childhood had gained a supreme influence over him; 
and in communion with his Bible and with his own soul, the solitary man, 
clad in his goat-skins, became meek, thankful and tender-hearted. How 
different from the rough young sailor who, not many years before, had 
been struggling in the 'grasps of his brother, his sister-in-law, and his old 
father on the floor of the cottage in Largo! Whether the change of 
character was permanent, we shall now see, as we are about to relate 
the circumstances which led to his release from his solitude, and his 
restoration to society. 

One hope of relief for Selkirk, even if other chances had failed, con¬ 
sisted in the probability that intelligence of his situation would reach 
England through some of the crew of the Cinque Ports, and that some 
vessel might, in consequence, be induced to pay a passing visit to Juan 
Fernandez for the purpose of ascertaining his fate. If Selkirk, however, 
had relied strongly on this probability, he would have been disappointed. 


ABANDONMENT OF SELKIRK. 


123 

The Cinque Ports never reached England. Old, crank, and worm-eaten, 
she foundered off the coast of Barbacoa not long after setting sail from 
Juan Fernandez. Out of the whole crew, only Captain Stradling and 
six or seven of his men were saved; and these were long detained 
prisoners among the Spaniards at Lima. They were in captivity during 
the whole time of Selkirk’s residence on his island; and long after he 
had returned to England, most of them were captives still. Stradling at 
length obtained his liberty, but his ultimate fate was never known. 

Deliverance was to reach Selkirk from another quarter. Dampier who 
had parted company with the Cinque Ports, about five months before 
Selkirk had been abandoned by Stradling, had continued his voyage 
through the South Seas in search of Spanish vessels. Various success 
had attended him for several months; a considerable portion of his crew 
forsook him; and, at length, crossing the Pacific to the East Indies, he 
and his companions fell into the hands of the Dutch, who seized his ship 
and all that he had. The expedition planned by him, had turned out a 
total failure. “ Dampier returned naked to his owners, with a melancholy 
relation of his misfortunes, occasioned chiefly by his own strange temper, 
which was so self-sufficient and overbearing, that few or none of his 
officers could endure it. Even in this distress he was received as an 
eminent man, notwithstanding his failings ; and was introduced to Queen 
Anne, having the honor to kiss her hand, and to give her majesty some 
account of the dangers he had undergone. The merchants were so sen¬ 
sible of his want of conduct, that they resolved never to trust him any 
more with a command.” 

The bad success of Dampier’s expedition, however, did not prevent 
the fitting out of another with similar designs against the Spaniards of 
the South Seas; and about the middle of the year 1708, two vessels, the 
Duke and the Duchess , the property of Bristol merchants, set sail for the 
Spanish main, having, in all, three hundred and thirty-three men on board. 
The Duke, a vessel of thirty guns, was commanded by Captain Woodes 
Rogers, a very able and prudent man; the Duchess, of twenty-six guns, 
by Captain Stephen Courtney. Poor Dampier, who could not be intrusted 
with the command, and whose poverty obliged him to accept some occu¬ 
pation of the same kind as that which he had all his life been accustomed 
to, was glad to sail in the Duke in the capacity of pilot to the expedition. 
Great care had been taken in the manning of both vessels, and regulations 
had been drawn up before sailing, to prevent disputes. 

Captain Rogers, whose proceedings during the voyage it is not neces¬ 
sary for us to detail, pursued the same track as the former expedition; 
and after cruising along the Brazilian coast, rounded Cape Horn in the 
month of December 1708, bearing for Juan Fernandez, to take in water. 
The crews came in sight of the island on the thirty-first of January, 1709, 
little anticipating the surprise which awaited them. What occurred as 
they approached, is thus related by Captain Rogers himself in the account 
which he published of the voyage:—“About two o’clock, p. m., on the 
thirty-first of January, we hoisted our pinnace out: Captain Dover, (second 
captain of the Duke,) with the boat’s crew, went in her to go ashore, 
though we could not be less than four leagues off. As soon as the pinnace 
was gone, I went on board the Duchess, the crew of which were astonished 
at our boat attempting to go on shore at so great a distance from land: 
it was against my inclination, but to oblige Captain Dover, I consented to 
let her go. As soon as it was dark, we saw a light ashore ; our boat was 
then about a league from the island. She stopped, and bore away again 


ABANDONMENT OF SELKIRK. 


124 

for the ship as soon as she saw the light. We put out lights for the boat, 
though some were of opinion that the light we saw was not on the island, 
but the boat’s light ; but as night came on, it appeared too large for that. 
We fired one quarter-deck gun and several muskets, showing lights in 
our mizzen and fore-shrouds, that our boat might find us, while we plied 
in the lee of the island. About two in the morning our boat came on 
board the Duchess: we were glad it got well off, because it began to blow. 
We were all convinced that the light was on the shore, and designed to 
make our ships ready to engage, as we believed it to come from French 
ships at anchor, and that we must either fight them or want water. 

“ The next day we stood along the south end of the island, in order to 
lay in.with the first southerly wind, which Captain Dampier told us 
generally blows there all day long. In the morning, being past the island, 
we tacked, to lay it in close aboard the land ; and about ten o’clock, ran 
close aboard the land that begins to make the north-east side. The flaws 
came heavy off the shore, and we were forced to reef our topsails when 
we opened the middle bay, where we expected to find the enemy, but 
saw all clear, and no ships in that nor the other bay. We guessed there 
had been ships there, but that they had gone away on sight of us. We 
sent our yawl ashore about noon with Captain Dover, Mr. Fry, and six 
men, all armed: meanwhile we and the Duchess kept turning to get in. 
Our boat did not return, so we sent our pinnace, with the men armed, to 
see what was the occasion of the yawl’s stay; for we were afraid that 
the Spaniards had a garrison there, and might have seized it. We put 
out a signal for our boat, and the Duchess showed a French Ensign* 
Immediately our pinnace returned from the shore, and brought abun¬ 
dance of crawfish, with a man clothed in goat-skins, who looked wilder 
than the first owners of them.” 

Selkirk, the man whose appearance caused such surprise, had seen 
the sails of the vessels at a distance, but had avoided making any signals 
which could indicate his presence till he ascertained them to be English. 
As soon as he had assured himself on this point, his joy was extreme. 
When night came on, he kindled a large fire on the beach, to inform the 
strangers that a human being was there. It was this signal which had 
alarmed the crews of the vessels, and deterred the pinnace from landing. 
During the night, hope having banished all desire of sleep, he employed 
himself in killing goats, and preparing a feast of fresh meat for those whom 
he expected to be his deliverers. In the morning he found that the 
vessels had removed to a greater distance, but ere long he saw the boat 
leave the side of one of them and approach the shore. Selkirk ran joy¬ 
fully to meet his countrymen, waving a linen rag to attract their attention ; 
and having pointed out to them a proper landing-place, soon had the 
satisfaction of clasping them in his arms. Joy at first deprived him of 
that imperfect power of utterance which solitude had left him, but in a 
little time he was able to offer and receive explanations. Dover, the second 
captain, Fry, the lieutenant, and the rest of the boat party, after partaking 
of Selkirk’s hospitality, invited him on board ; but so little eager was he 
to leave his solitude, that he was not prevailed upon to do so till assured 
that Dampier had no situation of command in the expedition—his former 
experience of Dampier’s mode of conducting a ship having given him no 
great confidence in him. When he was told that Dampier was only pilot 
on board, he made no further objection. He was then, as we have seen, 
brought on board the Duke, along with his principal effects ; and on the 
same day, by the recommendation of Dampier, who said he had been tho 


ABANDONMENT OF SELKIRK. 


125 

best man in the Cinque Ports, he was engaged as a mate. “ At his first 
coming on board us,” says Captain Rogers, “ he had so much forgot his 
language, for want of use, that we could scarcely understand him, for he 
seemed to speak his words by halves. We offered him a dram, but he 
would not touch it, having drank nothing but water since he came on the 
island ; and it was some time before he could relish our victuals.” 

For a fortnight the two vessels remained at Juan Fernandez refitting, 
recruiting their sick, and taking in water and provisions. In this they 
were greatly assisted by Selkirk, or the “ governor,” as they used to call 
him ; who, beside giving them all the information necessary respecting 
the island, made it a daily practice to catch several goats for the use of 
the sick. “ He took them,” says Rogers, “by speed of foot; for his way 
of living, and continual exercise of walking and running, cleared him of 
all gross humors, so that he ran with wonderful swiftness through the 
woods, and up the rocks and hills. We had a bulldog, which we sent 
with several of our nimblest runners to help him in catching goats; but 
he distanced and tired both the dog and the men, caught the goats, and 
brought them to us on his back. Being forced to shift without shoes, his 
feet had become so hard, that he ran everywhere without annoyance ; 
and it was some time before he could wear shoes after we found him; 
for, not being used to any for so long, his feet swelled when he came first 
to use them again.” Beside giving these particulars, Captain Rogers 
details at some length Selkirk’s mode of life during the four years and 
four months he had spent on the island, concluding— 

“ We may perceive, by this story, the truth of the maxim, that neces¬ 
sity is the mother of invention, since this man found means to supply his 
wants in a very natural manner, so as to maintain his life, though not so 
conveniently, yet as effectually as we are able to do with the help of our 
arts and society. It may likewise instruct us how much a plain and 
temperate way of living conduces to the health of the body and the vigor 
of the mind, both which we are apt to destroy by excess and plenty, 
especially of strong liquor, and the variety as well as the nature of our 
meat and drink ; for this man, when he came back to our ordinary method 
of diet and life, though he was sober enough, lost much of his strength 
and agility. But these reflections are more proper for a philosopher and 
divine than a mariner.” 

In the middle of February, 1709, the Duke and Duchess set sail from 
the island, to cruise along the western coast of America in quest of prizes, 
in which they were very successful, taking two prizes in a very short 
time. The second of these was fitted out as a privateer, to sail in company 
with the Duke and Duchess ; and Selkirk was appointed to command her. 
During the remainder of the expedition, he acted in a prominent capacity, 
under Rogers, in the various enterprises, both on sea and on shore, in which 
the little fleet engaged. The occupation was certainly one by no means 
calculated to give play to the more amiable qualities of human nature; 
but even in the sacking of coast towns, and expeditions of plunder into 
the interior, which for months formed his chief employment, our hero 
seems to have mingled humanity in as high a proportion as possible 
with the execution of his duty. The expedition of Rogers was as re¬ 
markable for steadiness, resolution, and success, as that of Dampier’s 
had been for quarreling and indecision; and it excites a curious feeling 
of surprise when we learn that the church of England service was regu¬ 
larly read on the qua’ter-decks of these piratical vessels, and all hands 
piped to prayers before every action Selkirk proved himself, by his 


ABANDONMENT OF SELKIRK. 


126 

steadiness, decent manners, and religious turn of mind, a most appropriate 
member of the corps commanded by Rogers, and was accordingly much 
valued by his superiors. At the beginning of the ensuing year, the ves¬ 
sels began their voyage across the Pacific, with the design of returning 
by the East Indies, and in this part of the enterprise Selkirk acted as 
sailing-master. They did not, however, reach England till October, 1711, 
when Selkirk had been absent from his country for eight years. Of the 
enormous sum of £170,000 which Rogers had realised by plundering the 
enemy, Selkirk seems to have shared to .the amount of about eight 
hundred pounds. 

His singular history was soon made known to the public; and imme¬ 
diately after his arrival in London, he became an object of curiosity not 
only to the people at large, but to those elevated by rank and learning. 
Sir Richard Steele, some time after, devoted to him an article in the 
paper entitled “The Englishman,” in which he tells the reader that, as 
Selkirk is a man of good sense, it is a matter of great curiosity to hear 
him give an account of the different revolutions of his mind during the 
term of his solitude. “When I first saw him,” continues this writer, “I 
thought if I had not been let into his character and story, I could have 
discovered that he had been much separated from company, from, his 
aspect and gesture; there was a strong but cheerful seriousness in his 
look, and a certain disregard of the ordinary things about him, as if he 
had been sunk in thought. When the ship which brought him off the 
island came in, he received them with the greatest indifference with re¬ 
lation to the prospect of going off with them, but with great satisfaction 
in an opportunity to refresh and help them. The man frequently be¬ 
wailed his return to the world, which could not, he said, with all its 
enjoyments, restore him to the tranquillity of his solitude. 6 1 am now 
worth eight hundred pounds,’ he said, 4 but shall never be so happy as 
when I was not worth a farthing.’ Though I had frequently conversed 
with him, after a few months’ absence he met me in the street, and 
though he spoke to me, I could not recollect that I had seen him: familiar 
converse in this town had taken ojf the loneliness of his aspect , and quite 
altered the air of his face .” What makes this latter circumstance the 
more remarkable is, the fact of nearly three years having elapsed between 
his restoration to society and the time when Sir Richard Steele first saw 
him. 

Beside Sir Richard Steele’s paper, various short accounts of Selkirk’s 
adventures appeared within a year or two after his return to England. 
Defoe’s romance of Robinson Crusoe was not published till the year 1719, 
when the original facts on which it was founded must have been nearly 
forgotten. There is no record of any interview having taken place 
between Selkirk and Defoe, so that it cannot be decided whether Defoe 
learnt our hero’s story from his own mouth, or from such narratives as 
those published by Steele and others. 

It was a fine Sunday morning in the spring of 1712 ; the kirk bells of 
Largo had for some time ceased ringing, and the parishioners were as¬ 
sembled in church, when a handsomely dressed stranger knocked at the 
door of old John Selkirk’s dwelling. No one was within, and the 
stranger bent his steps toward the parish church. He entered, and sat 
down in a pew near the door. His late entrance, the fact of his being a 
stranger, and his fine gold-laced clothes, attracted attention to him, and 
divided the interest of the congregation with the clergyman’s sermon. 
The service proceeded: not far from the place where the stranger had 


ABANDONMENT OF SELKIRK. 


127 

stationed himself, was the pew where old John Selkirk, his wife, and 
others of the family were sitting, and toward this pew the stranger con¬ 
tinued to direct his eyes. The occupants of the pew returned the glance 
as discreetly as they could; old Mrs. Selkirk especially several times 
eyed the stranger with curiosity over her Bible. At length the glances 
became a fixed gaze; the old woman’s face grew pale; and crying, “ It’s 
Sandie!—it’s Sandie!” she tottered up to the stranger, and flung herself 
into his arms. The clergyman stopped; the congregation rose in a bustle 
of excitement, and quiet was not restored until the whole Selkirk family 
left the church in a body, to give full scope at home to their mutual 
congratulations and inquiries. 

“For a few days,” says his biographer, Mr. Howell, who ascertained 
the particulars by industrious inquiry, “ Selkirk was happy in the company 
of his parents and friends; but from long habit, he soon felt averse to 
mixing in society, and was most happy when alone. For days his relations 
never saw his face from the dawn until late in the evening, when he 
returned to bed. It was his custom to go out in the morning, carrying 
with him provisions for the day; then would he wander and meditate 
alone through the secluded and solitary valley of Keil’s Den. The romantic 
beauties of the place, and, above all, the stillness that reigned there, 
reminded him of his beloved island, which he never thought of but with 
regret for having left it. When evening forced him to return to the haunts 
of men, he appeared to do so with reluctance; for he immediately retired 
to his room, up stairs, in his brother’s house, where he resided. Here 
he was accustomed to amuse himself with two cats that belonged to his 
brother, which he taught, in imitation of a part of his occupations on his 
solitary island, to dance and perform many little feats. They were ex¬ 
tremely fond of him, and used to watch his return. He often said to his 
friends, no doubt thinking of himself in his youth, that ‘were children as 
docile and obedient, parents would all be happy in them.’ But poor 
Selkirk himself was now far from being happy, for his relations often 
found him in tears. Attached to his father’s house was a piece of ground, 
occupied as a garden, which rose in a considerable acclivity backward: 
here, on the top of the eminence, soon after his arrival in Largo, he con¬ 
structed a sort of cave, commanding an extensive and delightful view of 
the Forth and its shores. In fits of musing meditation, he was wont to 
sit here in bad weather, and even at other times, and to bewail his ever 
having left his island. This recluse and unnatural propensity, as it 
appeared to them, was cause of great grief to his parents, who often 
remonstrated with him, and endeavored to raise his spirits. But their efforts 
were made in vain; and he sometimes broke out before them in a passion 
of grief, and exclaimed, ‘Oh my beloved island! I wish I had never left 
thee! I never before was the man I was on thee; I have not been such 
since I left thee; and I fear never can be again!’ Having plenty of money, 
he purchased a boat for himself, and often, when the weather would permit, 
he made little excursions, but always alone; and day after day he spent 
in fishing in the beautiful Bay of Largo, or at Kingscraig Point, where 
he would loiter till evening among the romantic cliffs catching lobsters— 
his favorite amusement, as they reminded him of the crawfish of Juan 
Fernandez. The rock to which he moored his boat is still shown.” 

Selkirk at length resolved to abandon this mode of life; and the exe¬ 
cution of his design was probably hastened by an attachment he had formed 
to a young girl named Sophia Bruce, whom he often met, tending her 
mother’s cow, in his wanderings through Keil’s Den. “ He never,” says 


ABANDONMENT OF SELKIRK. 


128 

Mr. Howell, “mentioned the attachments his friends; for he felt ashamed, 
after his discourses to them, and the profession he had made of dislike 
to human society, to acknowledge that he was on the point of marrying. 
But to marry he was determined, though as firmly resolved not to remain 
at home to be the subject of their jests. He soon persuaded the object 
of his choice to elope with him, and bid adieu to the romantic glen. 
Without the knowledge of their parents, they both set out for London. 
He left his chest and all his clothes behind; nor did he ever claim them 
again; and his friends knew nothing and heard nothing of him for many 
years. At the time of this sudden departure from Largo, Selkirk was 
nearly forty years of age. 

In London Selkirk seems to have lived some time. Nothing, how¬ 
ever, is known of his movements till 1717,, in which year we find him 
executing a will and power of attorney, by the hands of a notary in 
Wapping, in favor of Sophia Bruce, the object of his affection; being 
then on the point of again going to sea. The only other known particulars 
respecting Selkirk’s life came to light in the year 1724, when a gaily- 
dressed lady, named Frances Candis, presented herself at Largo as the 
widow of Alexander Selkirk, and claimed the property which had been 
left him by his father, including the house of Craggy Wall, mentioned in 
the foregoing will. She produced documents which proved her marriage 
with Selkirk; a will, also, dated the twelfth of December 1720, entitling 
her to the property; and lastly, an attestation of the death of her husband, 
Lieutenant Alexander Selkirk, on board his majesty’s ship Weymouth in 
the year 1723. From the second of these documents, it is inferred that 
Sophia Bruce had died some time between 1717, when the first will was 
executed in her favor, and 1720, when the second will was drawn up in 
favor of Frances Candis. Having had her claims adjusted, Selkirk’s 
widow took her departure from Largo after a few days. So far as can be 
ascertained, Selkirk left no children either by her or by Sophia Bruce. 

The house in which Selkirk lived, during his last residence at Largo, is 
still occupied by the descendants of his brother John, who preserve his 
chest and his cocoanut shell cup. His flip-can exists in the possession 
of another relation, and his gun has for some years been the property of 
Major Lumsden of Lathallan, near Largo. “ The flip-can,” says Mr. 
Howell, “ holds about a Scottish pint, [two quarts,] and is made of brown 
stoneware, glazed. On it is the following inscription and posy—sailors 
being in all ages notoriously addicted to inscribing rhymes on such 
articles:— 

‘Alexander Selkirk, this is my one. 

When you take me on board of ship, 

Pray fill me full with punch or flip.’ 

The handle of the jug is gone; its mouth is broken in two places; and 
a crack in the stoneware is patched with pitch, probably put on by Selkirk’s 
own hands.” 

The island of Juan Fernandez, which may also be considered as a 
relic of Alexander Selkirk, has passed through the hands of a succession 
of owners since he quitted it. For upward of thirty years after his 
departure it remained in the condition in which he had left it—an uninhabi¬ 
ted island, where ships, sailing along the western coast of South America, 
occasionally put in for water and fresh victuals. Once or twice, indeed, 
the chances of shipwreck gave it one or two inhabitants, who did not 
remain long. In 1750, the Spaniards again formed a settlement on it, 



ABANDONMENT OF SELKIRK. 


129 

and built a fort. Both were destroyed by an earthquake in the following 
year; but another town was built at a greater distance from the shore. 
It continued to be inhabited for about twenty years, but was then aban¬ 
doned, as the former Spanish settlement in the island had been. Early 
in the present century, the Chilian government began to use Juan Fer¬ 
nandez as a penal settlement, transporting their state criminals to it; but 
in consequence of the expense, it was soon given up; and when Lord 
Cochrane visited the island in 1823, there were but four men stationed 
on it, apparently in charge of some cattle. The following description is 
given of the island by a lady who accompanied Lord Cochrane and a 
party on shore:—“ The island is the most picturesque I ever saw y being 
composed of high perpendicular rocks, wooded nearly to the top, with 
beautiful valleys, exceedingly fertile, and watered by copious streams, 
which occasionally form small marshes. The little valley where the town 
is, or rather was, is exceedingly beautiful. It is full of fruit-trees and 
flowers, and sweet herbs, now grown wild; near the shore, it is covered 
with radish and sea-side oats. A small fort was situated on the sea-shore, 
of which there is nothing now visible but the ditches and part of one wall. 
Another, of considerable size for the place, is on a high and commanding 
spot. It contained barracks for soldiers, which, as well as the greater 
part of the fort, are ruined; but the flag-staff, front wall, and a turret are 
standing; and at the foot of the flag-staff lies a very handsome brass gun, 
cast in Spain, a. d. 1614. A few houses and cottages are still in a tole¬ 
rable condition, though most of the doors, windows, and roofs have been 
taken away, or used as fuel by whalers and other ships touching here. 
In the valleys we found numbers of European shrubs and herbs—‘ where 
once the garden smiled.’ And in the half-ruined hedges, which denote 
the boundaries of former fields, we found apple, pear, and quince trees, 
with cherries almost ripe. The ascent is steep and rapid from the beach, 
even in the valleys, and the long grass was dry and slippery, so that it 
rendered the walk rather fatiguing; and we were glad to sit down under a 
large quince-tree on a carpet of balm, bordered with roses, now neglected, 
and feast our eyes with the lovely view before us. Lord Anson has 
not exaggerated the beauty of the place, or the delights of the climate. 
We were rather early for its fruits, but even at this time we have gathered 
delicious figs, cherries, and pears, that a few days more of sun would 
have perfected. The landing-place is also the watering-place. There a 
little jetty is thrown out, formed of the beach pebbles, making a little 
harbor for boats, which lie there close to the fresh water, which comes 
conducted by a pipe, so that, with a hose, the casks may be filled without 
landing with the most delicious water. Along the beach some old guns 
are sunk, to serve as moorings for vessels, which are all the safer the 
nearer in shore they lie ; as violent gusts of wind often blow from the 
mountain for a few minutes. The height of the island is about three 
thousand feet.” 

The isle of Juan Fernandez, of late years, has been much visited by 
vessels in the California trade. An American traveler J. Ross Browne, 
visited the island in 1849, and has given his impressions in a charming 
little book, half fiction and half truth, under the title of “ Crusoe Life, 
a Narrative of Adventures in the Island of Juan Fernandez,” from which 
we take the following extract. 

At the dawn of day I was on deck, looking eagerly toward the island. 
I may as well confess at once that no child could have felt more delight 
than I did in the anticipation of something illusive and enchanting. My 
9 


ABANDONMENT OF SELKIRK. 


130 


# 


heart throbbed with impatience to see what it was that cast so strange a 
fascination about that lonely spot. All was wrapped in mist; but the 
air was filled with fresh odors of land, and wafts of sweetness more deli¬ 
cious than the scent of new-mown hay. The storm had ceased, and the 
soft-echoed bleating of goats, and the distant baying of wild dogs were 
all the sounds of life that broke upon the stillness. It seemed as if the 
sun, loth to disturb the ocean in its rest, or reveal the scene of beauty that 
lay slumbering upon its bosom, would never rise again, so gently the light 
stole upon the eastern sky, so softly it absorbed the shadows of night. I 
watched the golden glow as it spread over the heavens, and beheld at 
last the sun in all his majesty scatter away the thick vapors that lay around 
his resting-place, and each vale was opened out in the glowing light of 
the morning, and the mountains that towered out of the sea were bathed 
in the glory of his rays. 

Never shall I forget the strange delight with which I gazed upon that 
isle of romance; the unfeigned rapture I felt in the anticipation of ex¬ 
ploring that miniature world in the desert of waters, so fraught with the 
happiest associations of youth; so remote from all the ordinary realities 
of life; the actual embodiment of the most absorbing, most fascinating of 
all the dreams of fancy. Many foreign lands I had seen; many islands 
scattered over the broad ocean, rich and wondrous in their romantic 
beauty; many glens of Utopian loveliness; mountain heights weird and 
impressive in their sublimity; but nothing to equal this in variety of outline 
and undefinable richness of coloring; nothing so dreamlike, so wrapped 
in illusion, so strange and absorbing in its novelty. Great peaks of reddish 
rock seemed to pierce the sky wherever I looked; a thousand rugged 
ridges swept upward toward the center in a perfect maze of enchantment. 
It was all wild, fascinating, and unreal. The sides of the mountains were 
covered with patches of rich grass, natural fields of oats, and groves of 
myrtle and pimento. Abrupt walls of rock rose from the water to the 
height of a thousand feet. The surf broke in a white line of foam along 
the shores of the bay and its measured swell floated upon the air like the 
voice of a distant cataract. Fields of verdure covered the ravines; ruined 
and moss-covered walls were scattered over each eminence; and the 
straw huts of the inhabitants were almost embosomed in trees, in the 
midst, of the valley, and jets of smoke arose out of the groves and floated 
off gently in the calm air of the morning. In all the shore, but one spot, 
a single opening among the rocks, seemed accessible to man. 

No longer able to control our enthusiasm, we sprang into the boat and 
pushed off for the landing. We first went up to a bluff, where we spent 
an hour, in exploring the ruins of the fortifications, built by the Chilians, 
in 1767. There was nothing left but the foundation and a portion of the 
ramparts of the principal fort, partly imbedded in banks of clay, and 
nearly covered with moss and weeds. It was originally strongly built of 
large stones, which were cast down in every direction, by the terrible 
earthquake of 1835; and now all that remained perfect was the front wall 
of the main rampart and the groundwork of the fort. Not far from these 
ruins we found the convict-cells, which we explored to some extent. 

The cells are dug into the brow of a hill, facing the harbor, and extend 
under ground to the distance of several hundred feet, in the form of pas¬ 
sages and vaults, resembling somewhat the Catacombs of Rome. During 
the penal settlement established here by the Chilian government, the 
convicts, numbering sometimes many hundreds, were confined in these 
gloomy dungeons, where they were subjected to the most barbarous 


ABANDONMENT OF SELKIRK, 131 

treatment. The gates or doors by which the entrances were secured, 
had ail been torn down and destroyed; and the excavations were now 
occupied only by wild goats, bats, toads, and different sorts of vermin. 
Rank fern hung upon the sides; overhead was dripping with a cold and 
deathlike sweat, and slimy drops coursed down the weeds, and the air 
was damp and chilly: thick darkness was within in the depths beyond; 
darkness that no wandering gleam from the light of day ever reached— 
for heaven never smiled upon those dreary abodes of sin and sorrow. 
A few of the inner dungeons, for the worst criminals, were dug still deeper 
under ground, and rough stairways of earth led down into them, which 
were shut out from the upper vaults by strong doors. The size of these 
lower dungeons was not more than five or six feet in length, by four or 
five in height; from which some idea may be formed of the sufferings 
endured by the poor wretches confined in them; shut out from the light 
of heaven, loaded with heavy irons, crushed down by dank and impene¬ 
trable walls of earth, starved and beaten by their cruel guards; with no 
living soul to pity them in their woe, no hope of release save in death. 
We saw, by the aid of a torch, deep holes scratched in one of the walls, 
bearing the impression of human fingers. It might have been that some 
unhappy murderer, goaded to madness by such cruel tortures of body and 
terrible anguish of mind, as drive men to tear even their own flesh when 
buried before the vital spark is extinct, had grasped out the earth in his 
desperation, and left the marks in his death agonies upon the clay that 
entombed him, to tell what no human heart but his suffered there, no 
human ear had heard, no human eye had witnessed. The deep, startling 
echo breaking upon the heavy air, as we sounded the walls, seemed yet 
to mingle with his curses, and its last sepulchral throb was like the dying 
moan of the maniac. 

Some time before the great earthquake, which destroyed the fortifications 
and broke up the penal colony, a gang of convicts, amounting to three 
hundred, succeeded in liberating themselves from their cells. Unable 
to endure the cruelties inflicted upon them, they broke loose from their 
chains, and rushing upon the guards, murdered the greater part of them, 
and, finally, seized the garrison. For several days, they held complete 
possession of the island. A whale-ship, belonging to Nantucket, hap¬ 
pening to come in at the time for wood and water, they seized the captain, 
and compelled him to take on board as many of them as the vessel could 
contain. About two hundred were put on board. They then threatened 
the captain and officers with instant death, in case of any failure to land them 
on the coast of Peru, whither they determined to go, in order to escape 
the vengeance of Chilian government. Desirous of getting rid of them 
as soon as possible, the captain of the whaler ran over for the first land 
on the coast of Chili, where he put them ashore, leaving them ignorant 
of their position until they were unable to regain the vessel. They soon 
discovered that they were only thirty miles from Valparaiso; but short as 
ihe distance was from the Chilian authorities, they evaded all attempts to 
capture them, and eventually joined the Peruvian army, which was then 
advancing upon Santiago. The remainder of the prisoners left upon the 
island, escaped in different vessels, and were scattered over various parts 
of the world. Only a few out of the entire number engaged in the mas¬ 
sacre were ever captured: sentence of death was passed upon them, and 
they were shot in the public plaza of Santiago. 

Turning our steps toward the settlement of the present residents, we 
passed a few hours very agreeably in rambling about among their rustic 


ABANDONMENT OF SELKIRK. 


132 

abodes. The total number of inhabitants at this period (1849,) is sixteen: 
consisting of William Pearce, an American, and four or five Chilian men, 
with their wives and children. No others have lived permanently upon 
the island for several years. There are in all some six or seven huts, 
pleasantly surrounded by shrubbery, and well supplied with water from 
a spring. These habitations are built of the straw of wild oats, interwoven 
through wattles or long sticks, and thatched with the same,* and whether 
from design or accident, are extremely picturesque. The roofs project 
so as to form an agreeable shade all round; the doorways are covered in 
by a sort of projecting porch, in the style of the French cottages along 
the valley of the Seine; small out-houses, erected upon posts, are scat¬ 
tered about each inclosure; and an air of repose and freedom from worldly 
care pervades the whole place, though the construction of the houses and 
mode of living are evidently of the most primitive kind. Seen through 
the green shrubberies that abound in every direction, the bright yellow of 
the cottages, and the smoke curling up in the still air, have a very cheerful 
effect; and the prattling voices of the children, mingled with the lively 
bleating of the kine, and the various pleasant sounds of domestic life, 
might well lead one to think, that the seclusion of these islanders from 
the busy world is not without its charms. 

Open at all times to the pleasant breezes from the ocean, without 
malaria or anything to produce disease, beautifully diversified in scenery, 
and susceptible of being made a convenient stopping-place for, vessels 
bound to the great Northwestern Continent, it would be difficult to find a 
more desirable place for a colony of intelligent and industrious people, 
who would cultivate the land, build good houses, and turn to advantage 
all the gifts of Providence which have been bestowed upon the island. 


f 


COLONEL ETIIAN ALLEN, 


THE HERO OF TICONDEROGA, WHO AFTER HE FELL INTO THE HANDS OF THE ENEMY AT 
MONTREAL, WAS CONFINED, DURING A CONSIDERABLE PERIOD OF HIS CAPTIVITY, A PRISONER 
ON BOARD OF 


THE NARRATIVE 

OF 


BRITISH SHIPS OF WAR. 


Ever since 1 arrived at a state of manhood, and acquainted myself with 
the general history of mankind, I have felt a sincere passion for liberty; 
so that the first systematical and bloody attempt at Lexington, to enslave 
America, thoroughly electrified my mind, and fully determined me to take 
part with my country. 

While I was wishing for an opportunity to signalize myself in its behalf, 
directions were privately sent to me from the then colony, now State of 
Connecticut, to raise the Green Mountain Boys ; and, if possible, with 
them to surprise and take the fortress Ticonderoga. This enterprise I 
cheerfully undertook ; and, after first guarding all the several passes that 
led thither, to cut off all intelligence between the garrison and the country, 
made a forced march from Bennington, and arrived at the lake opposite 
Ticonderoga, on the evening of the ninth day of May, 1775, with two 
hundred and thirty valiant Green Mountain Boys; and it was with the 
utmost difficulty that I procured boats to cross the lake. However, I 
landed eighty-five men near the garrison, and sent the boats back for the 
rear-guard, commanded by Col. Seth Warner; but the day began to dawn, 
and I found myself under a necessity to attack the fort before the rear 
could cross the lake; and, as it was viewed hazardous, I harangued the 
officers and soldiers in the manner following: “Friends and fellow-soldiers 
you have, for a number of years past, been a scourge and terror to arbi¬ 
trary power. Your valor has been famed abroad, and acknowledged, as 
appears by the advice and orders to me from the General Assembly of 
Connecticut, to surprise and take the garrison now before us. I now 
propose to advance before you, and in person conduct you through the 
wicket-gate ; for we must this morning either quit our pretensions to 
valor, or possess ourselves of this fortress in a few minutes; and, inas¬ 
much as it is a desperate attempt, which none but the bravest of men dare 
undertake, I do not urge it on any contrary to his will. You that will 
undertake, voluntarily, poise your firelocks.” 

The men being at this time drawn up in three ranks, each poised his 
firelock; I ordered them to face to the right, and, at the head of the center 
file, marched them immediately to the wicket-gate aforesaid, where I 
found a sentry posted, who instantly snapped his fusee at me. I ran 
immediately toward him, and he retreated through the covered way iqio 
the parade within the garrison, gave a halloo, and ran under a bomb 
proof. My party, who followed me into the fort, I formed on the parade 
in such manner as to face the two barracks which faced each other. The 

(133) 



134 


ETHAN ALLEN’S NARRATIVE. 


garrison being asleep, except the sentries, we gave three huzzas which 
greatly surprised them. One of the sentries made a pass at one of my 
officers with a charged bayonet, and slightly wounded him. My first 
thought was to kill him with my sword; but, in an instant, I altered the 
design and fury of the blow to a slight cut on the side of the head ; upon 
which he dropped his gun, and asked quarter, which I readily granted 
him, and demanded of him the place where the commanding officer slept; 
he showed me a pair of stairs in the front of a barrack, on the west part 
of the garrison, which led up to a second story in said barrack, to which 
I immediately repaired, and ordered the commander, Capt. Delaplace, 
to come forth instantly, or I would sacrifice the whole garrison; at which 
the captain came immediately to the door with his breeches in his hand, 
when I ordered him to deliver to me the fort instantly. He asked me by 
what authority I demanded it. I answered him, “ In the name of the 
great Jehovah and the Continental Congress.” The authority of the 
Congress being very little known at that time, he began to speak again ; 
but I interrupted him, and with my drawn sword over his head, again 
demanded an immediate surrender of the garrison ; to which he then 
complied, and ordered his men to be forthwith paraded without arms, as 
he had given up the garrison. In the meantime some of my officers 
had given orders, and in consequence thereof, sundry of the barrack 
doors were beat down, and about one third of the garrison imprisoned, 
which consisted of the said commander, a Lieut. Feltham, a conductor 
of artillery, a gunner, two sergeants, and forty-four rank and file ; about 
one hundred pieces of cannon, one thirteen-inch mortar, and a number 
of swivels. This surprise was carried into execution in the gray of the 
morning of the tenth day of May, 1775. Col. Warner, with the rear 
guard, crossed the lake, and joined me early in the morning, whom I sent 
off, without loss of time, with about one hundred men, to take possession 
of Crown Point, which was garrisoned with a sergeant and twelve men; 
which he took possession of the same day, as also upward of one hundred 
pieces of cannon. But one thing now remained to be done, to make 
ourselves complete masters of Lake Champlain. This was to possess our¬ 
selves of a sloop of war, which was then laying at St. John’s ; to effect 
which, it was agreed, in a council of war, to arm and man put a certain 
schooner, which lay at South Bay, and that Captain (now General) Arnold 
should command her, and that I should command the batteaux. The 
necessary preparations being made, we set sail from Ticonderoga in quest 
of the sloop, which was much larger, and carried more guns and heavier 
metal than the schooner. General Arnold, with the schooner, sailing 
faster than the batteaux, arrived at St. John’s ; and by surprise possessed 
himself of the sloop before I could arrive with the batteaux. He also 
made prisoners of a sergeant and twelve men, who were garrisoned at 
that place. 

Early in the fall of the year, the little army, under the command of the 
Generals Schuyler and Montgomery, were ordered to advance into Canada, 
I was at Ticonderoga when this order arrived; and the General, with most 
of the field-officers, requested me to attend them in the expedition. I was 
first ordered by the General to go, in company with Major Brown and 
certain interpreters, through the woods into Canada, with letters to the 
Canadians, and to let them know that the design of the army was only 
against the English garrisons, and not the country, their liberties, or 
religion. This was soon accomplished, and on the morning of the 24th 
day of September, I set out with my guard of about eighty men, from 


ETHAN ALLEN’S NARRATIVE. 


135 

Longale, to go to Lapraier ; from thence I determined to go to Gen. Mont¬ 
gomery’s camp ; but had not advanced two miles before I met with Major 
Brown, who proposed, that “ Provided I would return to Longale, and 
procure some canoes, so as to cross the river St. Lawrence, a little north 
of Montreal, he would cross it a little to the south of the town, with near 
two hundred men, as he had boats sufficient; and that we would make 
ovrselves masters of Montreal.” 

This plan was readily approved by me and those in council; and in 
consequence of which I returned to Longale, collected a few canoes, and 
added about thirty English Americans to my party, and crossed the river 
in the night of the 24th. My whole party, at this time, consisted of about 
one hundred and ten men, near eighty of whom were Canadians. I then 
reconnoitered the best ground to make a defense, expecting Col. Brown’s 
party were landing on the other side of the town, he having the day before 
agreed to give three huzzas with his men early in the morning, which 
signal I was to return, that we might each know that both parties were 
landed ; but the sun by this time being near two hours high, and the sign 
failing, I began to conclude myself to be in a premunire, and would 
have crossed the river back again, but I knew the enemy would have 
discovered such an attempt. 

The town of Montreal was in a great tumult. Gen. Carlton and the 
royal party made every preparation to go on board their vessels as I was 
afterwards informed, but a spy escaping from my guard to the town, 
occasioned an alteration in their policy, and emboldened Gen. Carlton to 
send the force, which he had there collected, out against me. I had 
previously chosen my ground, but when I saw the number of the enemy 
as they sallied out of the town, I perceived it would be a day of trouble, 
if not of rebuke ; but I had no chance to flee, as Montreal was situated 
on an island, and the river St. Lawrence cut off my communication to 
Gen. Montgomery’s camp. The enemy consisted of not more than forty 
regular troops, together with a mixed multitude, chiefly Canadians, with 
a number of English who lived in the town, and some Indians ; in all to 
the number of near five hundred. The reader will notice that most of 
my party were Canadians; indeed it was a motley parcel of soldiery which 
composed both parties. However, the enemy began the attack from 
wood-piles, ditches, buildings, and such like places, at a considerable 
distance, and I returned the fire from a situation more than equally ad¬ 
vantageous. The fire continued for some time on both sides; and I was 
confident that such a remote method of attack could not carry the ground 
provided it should be continued until night, but near half the body of the 
enemy began to flank round to my right; upon which I ordered a volunteer, 
by the name of John Dugan, to detach about fifty of the Canadians, and 
post himself at an advantageous ditch, which was on my right, to prevent 
my being surrounded. He advanced with the detachment, but instead 
of occupying the post, made his escape, as did likewise Mr. Young upon 
the left, with their detachments. The enemy kept closing round me, nor 
was it in my power to prevent it, by which means my situation, which 
was advantageous in the first part of the attack, ceased to be so in the 
last; and being almost entirely surrounded with such vast, unequal num¬ 
bers, I ordered a retreat, but found that those of the enemy who were of 
the country, and their Indians, could run as fast as my men, though the 
regulars could not? Thus I retreated near a mile, and some of the enemy, 
with the savages, kept flanking me, and others crowded hard in the rear. 
In fine I expected in a very short time to try the world of spirits, for I 


136 


ETHAN ALLEN’S NARRATIVE. 


was apprehensive that no quarter would be given to me, and therefore 
had determined to sell my life as dearly as I could. One of the enemy’s 
officers boldly pressing in the rear, discharged his fusee at me ; the ball 
whistled near me, as did many others that day. I returned the salute, 
and missed him, as running had put us both out of breath. I then saluted 
him with my tongue in a harsh manner, and told him that inasmuch as 
his numbers were so far superior to mine, I would surrender, provided I 
could be treated with honor, and be assured of good quarter for myself 
and the men who were with me ; and he answered I should. Another 
officer coming up directly after, confirmed the treaty: upon which I agreed 
to surrender with my party, which then consisted of thirty-one effective 
men, and seven wounded. I ordered them to ground their arms, which 
they did. The officer I capitulated with, then directed me and my party 
to advance toward him, which was done. I handed him my sword, 
and in half a minute after, a savage, part of whose head was shaved, 
being almost naked and painted, with feathers intermixed with the hair 
of the other side of his head, came running to me with an incredible 
swiftness; he seemed to advance with more than mortal speed; as he 
approached near me, his hellish visage was beyond all description—snake 
eyes appear innocent in comparison with his ; his features distorted; 
malice, death, murder and the wrath of devils and damned spirits are 
the emblems of his countenance ; and in less than twelve feet of me, 
presented his firelock. 

At the instant of his present, I twitched the officer to whom I gave 
my sword between me and the savage ; but he flew round with great 
fury, trying to single me out to shoot me without killing the officer; but 
by this time I was near as nimble as he, keeping the officer in such a 
position that his danger was my defense. But in less than half a minute 
I was attacked by just such another imp of hell. Then I made the officer 
fly round with incredible velocity for a few seconds of time, when I per- 
ceived a Canadian (who had lost one eye, as appeared afterward,) taking 
my part against the savages; and in an instant an Irishman came to my 
assistance with a fixed bayonet, and drove away the fiends, swearing “ by 
Jasus he would kill them.” This tragic scene composed my mind. The 
escaping from so awful a death made even imprisonment happy; the 
more so as my conquerors on the field treated me with great civility and 
politeness. The regular officers said that they were happy to see Col. 
Allen. I answered them, that I should rather chose to have seen them 
at Gen. Montgomery’s camp. The gentlemen replied that they gave full 
credit to what I said, and as I walked to the town, which was, as I should 
guess, more than two miles, a British officer walked at my right hand, 
and one of the French noblesse at my left; the latter of which, in the 
action, had his eyebrow carried away by a glancing shot, but was never¬ 
theless very merry and facetious, and no abuse was offered me till I came 
to the barrack-yard at Montreal, where I met Gen. Prescott, who asked 
me my name, which I told him. He then asked me whether I was that 
Col. Allen who took Ticonderoga. I told him I was the very man. 
Then he shook his cane over my head, calling many hard names, among 
which he frequently used the word Rebel, and put himself into a great 
rage. I told him he would do well not to cane me, for I was not accus¬ 
tomed to it, and shook my fist at him, telling him that that was the beetle 
of mortality for him, if he offered to strike ; upon which Capt. M’Cloud, 
of the British, pulled him by the skirt, and whispered to him (as he 
afterward told me) to this import: that it was inconsistent with his honor 


ETHAN ALLEN'S NARRATIVE. 


137 

to strike a prisoner. He then ordered a serjeant’s command, with fixed 
bayonets, to come forward and kill thirteen Canadians, which were 
included in the treaty aforesaid. 

It cut me to the heart to see the Canadians in so hard a case, in conse¬ 
quence of their having been true to me; they were wringing their hands, 
saying their prayers, as I concluded, and expected immediate death. I 
therefore stepped between the executioners and the Canadians, opened 
iny clothes, and told Gen. Prescott to thrust his bayonet into my breast, 
for I was the sole cause of the Canadians taking up arms. The guard in 
the meantime, rolling their eyeballs from the General to me, as though 
impatient, waiting his dread commands to sheathe their bayonets in my 
heart. I could, however, plainly discern that he was in a suspense and 
quandary about the matter. This gave me additional hopes of succeeding, 
for my design was not to die, but save the Canadians by a finesse. The 
General stood a minute, when he made me the following reply: “7 will 

not execute you now : but you shall grace a halter at Tyburn ,-ye.” 

General Prescott then ordered one of his officers to take me on board 
the Gaspee schooner of war, and confine me, hands and feet, in irons, 
which was done the same afternoon I was taken. 

The action continued an hour and three quarters by the watch, and I 
know not to this day how many of my men were killed, though I am cer¬ 
tain there were but few. If I remember right, seven were wounded; the 
latter were all put into the hospital at Montreal, and those that were not, 
were put on board of different vessels in the river, and shackled together 
by pairs, viz., two men fastened together by one handcuff being closely 
fixed to one wrist of each of them, and treated with the greatest severity, 
nay, as criminals. 

I now come to the desciption of the irons, which were put on me. The 
handcuff was of a common size and form, but my leg irons, I should 
imagine, would weigh thirty pounds ; the bar was eight feet long, and 
very substantial; the shackles which encompassed my ancles, were very 
tight. I was told by the officer who put them on, that it was the king’s 
plate, and I heard other of their officers say, that it would weigh forty 
weight. The irons were so close upon my ancles, that I could not lie 
down in any other manner than on my back. I was put into the lowest 
and most wretched part of the vessel, where I got the favor of a chest to 
sit on; the same answered for my bed at night; and having procured some 
little blocks of the guard, who, day and night, wiih fixed bayonets, watched 
over me, to lay under each end of the large bar of my leg irons, to pre¬ 
serve my ancles from galling, while I sat on the chest, or lay back on the 
same, though most of the time, night and day, I sat on it; but at length 
having a desire to lay down on my side, which the closeness of the irons 
forbid, I desired the captain to loosen them for that purpose, but was 
denied the favor. The captain’s name was Royal, who did not seem to 
be an ill-natured man; but oftentimes said, that his express orders were 
to treat me with such severity, which was disagreeable to his own feelings; 
nor did he ever insult me, though many others, who came on board, did. 
One of the officers, by the name of Bradley, was very generous to me ; 
he would often send me victuals from his own table ; nor did a day fail, 
but that he sent me a good drink of grog. 

The reader is now invited back to the time I was put into irons. I 
requested the privilege to write to General Prescott, which was granted. 
I reminded him of the kind and generous manner of my treatment to the 
prisoners I took at Ticonderoga; the injustice and ungentleman-like 



ETHAN ALLEN’S NARRATIVE. 


138 

usage, which I had met with from him, and demanded gentleman-like 
usage, but received no answer from him. I soon after wrote to General 
Carlton, which met the same success. In the meanwhile many of those 
who were permitted to see me were very insulting. I was confined in 
the manner I have related, on board the Gaspee schooner, about six weeks; 
during which time I was obliged to throw out plenty of extravagant 
language which answered certain purposes, at that time, better than to 
grace a history. To give an instance, upon being insulted, in a fit of 
anger I twisted off a nail with my teeth, which I took to be a ten-penny 
nail; it went through the mortice of the bar of my handcuff, and at the 
same time I swaggered over those who abused me ; particularly a Doctor 
Dace, who told me that I was outlawed by New York, and deserved death 
for several years past; was at last fully ripened for the halter, and in a 
fair way to obtain it. 

When I challenged him, he excused himself in consequence, as he 
said, of my being a criminal. But I flung such a flood of language at 
him that it shocked him and the spectators, for my anger was very great. 

I heard one say, “-him, can he eat iron?” After that a small padlock 

was fixed to the handcuff instead of the nail; and as they were mean- 
spirited in their treatment to me, so it appeared to me, that they were 
equally timorous and cowardly. I was sent with the prisoners taken with 
me to an armed vessel in the river, which lay off against Quebec, under 
the command of Captain M’Cloud of the British, who treated me in a 
very generous and obliging manner, and according to my rank ; in about 
twenty-four hours I bid him farewell with regret; but my good fortune 
still continued. The name of the captain of the vessel I was put on 
board, was Littlejohn; who, with his officers, behaved in a polite, generous, 
and friendly manner. I lived with them in the cabin, and fared on the 
best; my irons being taken off, contrary to the order he had received 
from the commanding officer; but Captain Littlejohn swore that a brave 
man should not be used as a rascal on board his ship. 

Having enjoyed eight or nine days’ happiness, from the polite and 
generous treatment of Captain Littlejohn and his officers, I was obliged 
to bid them farewell, parting with them in as friendly a manner as we had 
lived together, which, to the best of my memory, was the eleventh of 
November. When a detachment of General Arnold’s little army appeared 
on Point Levy, opposite Quebec, who had performed an extraordinary 
march through a wilderness country, with design to have surprised the 
capital of Canada, I was then taken on board a vessel called the Adamant, 
together with the prisoners taken with me, and put under the power of 
an English merchant from London, whose name was Brook Watson ; a 
man of malicious and cruel disposition, and who was probably excited 
in the exercise of his malevolence by a junto of tories, who sailed with 
him to England ; among whom were Colonel Guy Johnson, Colonel Closs, 
and their attendants and associates, to the number of about thirty. A 
small place in the vessel, enclosed with white oak plank, was assigned 
for the prisoners, and for me among the rest. I should imagine that it 
was not more than twenty feet one way and twenty-two the other. Into 
this place we were all, to the number of thirty-four, thrust and handcuffed, 
two prisoners more being added to our number, and were provided with 
two excrement tubs. In this circumference we were obliged to eat and 
perform the office of evacuation, during the voyage to England ; and were 
insulted by every blackguard sailor and tory on board, in the crudest 
manner; but what is the most surprising is, that not one of us died in 



ETHAN ALLEN’S NARRATIVE. 


139 

the passage. When I was first ordered to go inlo the filthy enclosure, 
through a small sort of door, I positively refused, and endeavored to reason 
the before-named Brook Watson out of a conduct so derogatory to every 
sentiment of honor and humanity, but all to no purpose, my men being 
forced in the den already ; and the rascal who had the charge of the 
prisoners, commanded me to go immediately in among the rest. He 
further added, that the place was good enough for a rebel ; that it was 
impertinent for a capital offender to talk of honor or humanity—that 
anything short of a halter was too good for me—and that, that would be 
my portion soon after I landed in England—for which purpose only I was 
sent thither. About the same time a lieutenant among the tories insulted 
me in a greivous manner, saying that I ought to have been executed for 
my rebellion against New York, and spit in my face ; upon which, though 
I was handcuffed, I sprung at him with both hands, and knocked him 
partly down, but he scrambled along into the cabin, and I after him— 
there he got under the protection of some men with fixed bayonets, who 
were ordered to make ready to drive me into the place before mentioned. 

I challenged him to fight, notwithstanding the impediments that were 
on my hands, and had the exalted pleasure to see the rascal tremble for 
fear. His name I have forgotten, but Watson ordered his guard to get 
me into the place with the other prisoners, dead or alive ; and I had 
almost as leave die as do it, standing it out till they environed me round 
with bayonets. Therefore, rather than die, I submitted to their indignities, 
being drove with bayonets into the filthy dungeon, with the other prisoners, 
where we were denied fresh water, except a small allowance which was 
very inadequate to our wants—and in consequence of the stench of the 
place, each of us was soon followed with a diarrhceq. and fever, which 
occasioned an intolerable thirst. When we asked for water, we were 
most commonly, instead of obtaining it, insulted and derided—and to add 
to all the horrors of the place, it was so dark that we could not see each 
other, and were overspread with body lice. We had, notwithstanding 
these severities, full allowance of salt provisions, and a gill of rum per 
day—the latter of which was of the utmost service to us, and probably 
was the means of saving several of our lives. About forty days we ex¬ 
isted in this manner, when the Land’s-End of England was discovered 
from the mast-head—soon after which the prisoners were taken from 
their gloomy abode, being permitted to see the light of the sun, and breathe 
fresh air, which to us was very refreshing. The day following we landed 
at Falmouth. A few days before I was taken prisoner, I shifted my clothes, 
by which I happened to be taken in a Canadian dress, viz: a short fawn- 
skin jacket, double-breasted, an under vest and breeches of fagathy, 
worsted stockings, a decent pair of shoes, two plain shirts, and a red 
worsted cap. This was all the clothing I had, in which I made my 
appearance in England. When the prisoners were landed, multitudes 
of the citizens of Falmouth, excited by curiosity, crowded together to see 
us, which was equally gratifying to us. I saw numbers of people on the 
tops of houses, and the rising adjacent grounds were covered with them of 
both sexes. The throng was so great that the king’s officers were obliged 
to draw their swords, and force a passage to Pendennis Castle, which was 
near a mile from the town where we were closely confined, in consequence 
of orders from General Carlton, who then commanded in Canada. 

My personal treatment by Lieutenant Hamilton, who commanded the 
castle, was very generous. He sent me every day a fine breakfast and 
dinner from his own table, and a bottle of good wine. Another aged 


140 


ETHAN ALLEN’S NARRATIVE. 


gentleman, whose name I cannot recollect, sent me a good supper. But 
there was no distinction in public support between me and the privates— 
we all lodged on a sort of Dutch bunks, in one common apartment, and 
were allowed straw. The privates were well supplied with, fresh provisions, 
and with me took effectual measures to rid ourselves of lice. Among 
the great numbers of people who came to the castle to see the prisoners, 
some gentlemen told me that they had come fifty miles on purpose to see 
me, and desired to ask me a number of questions, and to make free with 
me in conversation. I gave for answer, that I chose freedom in every 
sense of the word. Then one of them asked me what my occupation in 
life had been? I answered him, that in my younger days I had studied 
divinity, but was a conjuror by profession. He replied that I conjured 
wrong at the time I was taken ; and I was obliged to own, that I mistook 
a figure at that time, but that I had conjured them out of Ticonderoga. 
This was a place of great notoriety in England, so that the joke seemed 
to go in my favor. It was a common thing for me to be taken out of close 
confinement, into a spacious green in the castle, or rather parade, where 
numbers of gentlemen and ladies were ready to see and hear me. I 
often entertained such audiences with harangues on the impracticability 
of Great Britian’s conquering the then colonies of America. At one of 
these times I asked a gentleman for a bowl of punch, and he ordered his 
servant to bring it, w r hich he did, and offered it to me, but I refused to 
take it from the hand of his servant. He then gave it to me with his own 
hand, refusing to drink with me in consequence of my being a state 
criminal. However, I took the punch and drank it all down at one draught, 
and handed the gentleman the bowl. This made the spectators as well 
as myself merry. Two clergymen came to see me, and inasmuch as they 
behaved with civility, I returned them the same. We discoursed on 
several parts of moral philosophy and Christianity—and they seemed to 
be surprised that I should be acquainted with such topics, or that I should 
understand a syllogism or regular mood of argumentation. I am appre¬ 
hensive my Canadian dress contributed not a little to the surprise, and 
excitement of curiosity. 

The prisoners were landed at Falmouth a few days before Christmas, 
and ordered on board of the Solebay frigate, Captain Symonds,the eighth 
day of January, 1776, when our hand irons were taken off. This remove 
was in consequence (as I have since been informed) of a writ of habeas 
corpus, which had been procured by some gentlemen in England, in order 
to obtain me my liberty. The Solebay, with sundry other men of war, 
and about forty transports, rendezvoused at the cove of Cork, in Ireland, 
to take in provisions and water. When we were first brought on board, 
Captain Symonds ordered all the prisoners, and most of the hands on board, 
to go on deck, and caused to be read in their hearing a certain code of 
laws, or rules for the regulation and ordering of their behavior ; and 
then, in a sovereign manner, ordered the prisoners, me in particular, off 
the deck, and never to come on it again ; for, said he, this is a place for 
gentlemen to walk. So I went off, an officer following me, who told me, 
that he would show me the place allotted for me, and took me down to 
the cable tier, saying to me, this is your place. Prior to this I had taken 
cold, by which I was in an ill state of health, and did not say much to the 
officer ; but stayed there that night, consulted my policy, and found I was 
in an evil case. I felt myself more desponding than I had done at any 
time before. However, two days after I shaved and cleaned myself as 
well as I could, and went on deck. The captain spoke to me in a great 


ETHAN ALLEN’S NARRATIVE. 


141 

rage, and said, “ Did I not order you not to come on deck?” I answered 
him, that at the same time he said, that it was the place for gentlemen 
to walk. That I was Colonel Allen, but had not been properly intro¬ 
duced to him. He replied, “-you, sir, be careful not to walk the 

same side of the deck that I do.” This gave me encouragement, and 
ever after that I walked in the manner he had directed, except when he, 
at certain times afterward, ordered me off in a passion: I would then 
directly afterward go on again, telling him to command his slaves, that I 
was a gentleman, and had a right to walk the deck ; yet when he expressly 
ordered me off, I obeyed, not out of obedience to him, but to set an 
example to his ship’s crew, who ought to obey him. 

It was but a few nights I lodged in the cable tier, before I gained an 
acquaintance with the master-of-arms. His name was Gillegan, an Irish¬ 
man, who was a generous and well disposed man, and in a friendly manner 
made me a proffer of living with him in a little berth, which was allotted 
him between decks, and enclosed with canvas; his preferment on board 
was about equal to that of a serjeant in a regiment. I was comparatively 
happy in the acceptance of his clemency, and lived with him in friendship, 
until the frigate anchored in the harbor of Cape Fear, North Carolina, 
in America. 

Nothing of material consequence happened until the fleet rendezvoused 
at the cove of Cork, except a violent storm which brought old hardy 
sailors to their prayers. It was soon rumored in Cork that I was on board 
the Solebay, with a number of prisoners from America—upon which a 
number of benevolently disposed gentlemen, contributed largely to the 
relief and support of the prisoners, who were thirty-four in number, and 
in very needy circumstances. A suit of clothes from head to foot, 
including an overcoat, or surtout, and two shirts, were bestowed on each 
of them. My suit I received in superfine broadcloth, sufficient for two 
jackets, and two pair of breeches, overplus of a suit throughout, eight 
fine Holland shirts and socks ready made, with a number of pairs of silk 
and worsted hose, two pair of shoes, two beaver hats, one of which was 
richly laced with gold. The Irish gentlemen furthermore made a large 
gratuity of wines of the best sort, old spirits, Geneva, loaf and brown sugar, 
coffee, tea and chocolate, with a large round of pickled beef, and a number 
of fat turkies, with many other articles, for my sea-stores, too tedious to 
mention here. To the privates they bestowed to each man two pounds 
of tea, and six pounds of sugar. These articles were received on board, 
at a time when the captain and first lieutenant were gone on shore, by 
permission of the second lieutenant. To crown all, they sent me by 
another person fifty guineas, but I could not reconcile the receiving the 
whole to my own feelings, as it might have the appearance of avarice; 
and therefore received but seven guineas only. 

Two days after the receipt of the aforesaid donations, Captain Symonds 
came on board, full of envy toward the prisoners, and swore by all that is 
good, that the damned American rebels should not be feasted at this rate 
by the damned rebels of Ireland; he therefore took away all my liquors 
before mentioned, except some of the wine which was secreted, and a 
two gallon jug of old spirits which was reserved for me, per favor of 
Lieutenant Douglas. The taking my liquors was abominable in his sight: 
he therefore spoke in my behalf, until the captain was angry with him, 
and in consequence, proceeded and took away all the tea and sugar which 
had been given to the other prisoners, and confiscated it to the use of 
the ship’s crew. Our clothing was not taken away, but the privates were 



ETHAN ALLEN’S NARRATIVE. 


142 

forced to do duty on board. Soon after this there came a boat to the side 
of the ship, and Captain Symonds asked a gentleman that was in it, in my 
hearing, what his business was, who answered that he was sent to delivei 
some sea-stores to Colonel Allen, which, if I remember right, he said 
were sent from Dublin; but the captain damned him very heartily, ordered 
him away from the ship, and would not suffer him to deliver the stores. 

I was furthermore informed, that the gentlemen in Cork requested of 
Captain Symonds that I might be allowed to come into the city, and that 
they would be responsible I should return to the frigate at a given time, 
which was denied them. We sailed from England the eighth day of 
January, and from the cove of Cork the twelfth day of February. Just 
before we sailed, the prisoners with me were divided, and put on board 
three different ships of war. 

We had not sailed many days before a mighty storm arose, which lasted 
twenty-four hours without intermission. The wind blew with relentless 
fury, and no man could remain on deck, except he was lashed fast, for 
the waves rolled over the deck by turns, with a forcible rapidity, and every 
soul on board was anxious for the preservation of their lives. After the 
storm abated, I could plainly discern that the prisoners were better used 
for some considerable time. Nothing of consequence happened after 
this, till we had sailed to the island of Madeira, except a certain favor 
which I received of Captain Symonds, in consequence of an application 
I made to him, for the privilege of his tailor to make a suit of clothes of 
the cloth bestowed on me in Ireland, which he generously granted. 

The reader will doubtless recollect the seven guineas I received at the 
cove of Cork. These would have enabled me to purchase of the purser what 
I wanted, had not the captain strictly forbid it, though I made sundry ap¬ 
plications to him for that purpose ; but his answer to me, when I was sick, 
was, that it was no matter how soon I was dead, and that he was no ways 
anxious to preserve the lives of rebels, but wished them all dead ; and 
indeed that was the language of most of the ship’s crew. I expostulated 
not only with the captain but with other gentlemen on board, on the un¬ 
reasonableness of such usage ; inferring, that inasmuch as the govern¬ 
ment in England did not proceed against me as a capital offender, they 
should not; for that they were by no means empowered by any authority, 
either civil or military, to do so; for the English government had acquitted 
me by sending me back a prisoner of war to America, and that they should 
treat me as such. I further drew an inference of impolicy on them, 
provided they should, by hard usage, destroy my life ; inasmuch as I 
might, if living, redeem one of their officers; but the captain replied, 
that he needed no directions of mine how to treat a rebel; that the 
British would conquer the American rebels, hang the Congress, and such 
as promoted the rebellion, me in particular, and retake their own prisoners; 
so that my life was of no consequence in the scale of their policy. I 
gave him for answer, that if they stayed till they conquered America 
before they hanged me, I should die of old age , and desired that till such 
an event took place, he would at least allow me to purchase of the purser, 
for my own rnoney, such articles as I greatly needed; but he would not 
permit it, and when I reminded him of the generous and civil usage that 
their prisoners in captivity in America met with, he said that it was not 
owing to their goodness, but to their timidity ; for, said he, they expect 
to be conquered, and therefore dare not misuse our prisoners, and in fact 
this was the language of the British officers till General Burgoyne was 
.aken; and not only of the officers, but of the whole British army. The 


ETHAN ALLEN’S NARRATIVE. 


143 

surgeon of the Solebay, however, whose name was North, was a very 
humane and obliging man, and took the best care of the prisoners who 
were sick. 

The third day of May we cast anchor in the harbor of Cape Fear, in 
North Carolina, as did Sir Peter Parker’s ship of fifty guns, a little back 
of the bar, for there was no depth of water for him to come into the harbor. 
These two men-of-war and fourteen sail of transports and others, came 
after, so that most of the fleet rendezvoused at Cape Fear, for three weeks. 
The soldiers on board the transports were sickly, in consequence of so 
long a passage—add to this, the smallpox carried off many of them: 
they landed on the main and formed a camp, but the riflemen annoyed 
them, and caused them to move to an island in the harbor—but such 
cursing of riflemen I never heard. A detachment of regulars was sent 
up Brunswick river; as they landed, were fired on by those marksmen, 
and they came back next day, damning the rebels for their unmanly way 
of fighting, and swearing that they would give no quarter, for they took 
sight at them, and were behind timber, skulking about. One of the 
detachments said they lost one man—but a negro man who was with 
them, and heard what was said, soon after told me that he helped to bury 
thirty-one of them. 

The prisoners who had been sent on board different men-of-war at the 
cove of Cork, were collected together, and the whole of them put on board 
the Mercury frigate, Captain James Montague, who set sail from this port 
for Halifax, about the twentieth of May. I now found myself under a 
worse captain than Symonds ; for Montague was loaded with prejudices 
against everybody and everything that was not stamped with royalty; 
and being by nature underwitted, his wrath was heavier than the others, 
or at least his mind was in no instance liable to be diverted by good sense, 
humor or bravery, of which Symonds was by turns susceptible. In this 
passage the prisoners were infected with the scurvy, some more and some 
less, but most of them severely. The ship’s crew was to a great degree 
troubled with it, and I concluded that it was catching. Several of the 
crew died of it on their passage. I was weak and feeble in consequence 
of so long and cruel a captivity, yet had but little of the scurvy. The 
purser was again expressly forbid by the captain to let me have anything 
out of his store—upon which I went on deck, and in the handsomest 
manner requested the favor of purchasing a few necessaries of the purser, 
which was denied me. He further told me, that I should be hanged as 
soon as I arrived at Halifax. I tried to reason the matter with him, but 
found him proof against reason. He afterward forbid his surgeon to 
administer any help to the sick prisoners. I was every night shut down 
in the cable tier, with the rest of the prisoners, and we all lived miserably 
while under his power. But I received some generosity from several 
of the midshipmen, who in a degree alleviated my misery. But they 
were obliged to be private in the bestowment of their favor, which was 
sometimes good wine bitters, and at others a generous drink of grog. 
Sometime in the first week of June, we came to anchor at the Hook off* 
New York, where we remained but three days ; in which time Governor 
Tryon, Mr. Kemp, the old Attorney General of New York, and several 
other perfidious and overgrown tories and land-jobbers came on board. 
Tryon viewed me with a stern countenance as I was walking on the 
leeward side of the deck with the midshipmen—and he and his companions 
were walking with the captain and lieutenant on the windward side of 
the same, but never spoke to me. What passed between the officers of the 


ETHAN ALLEN’S NARRATIVE. 


144 

ship and these visitors I know not; but this I know, that my treatment 
from the principal officers was more severe afterward. 

We arrived at Halifax not far from the middle of June, where the ship’s 
crew which was infested with the scurvy, were taken on shore, and shallow 
trenches dug, into which they were put, and partly covered with earth.,. 
Indeed every proper measure was taken for their relief. The prisoners 
were not permitted any sort of medicine, but were put on board a sloop 
which lay in the harbor, near the town of Halifax, surrounded with several 
men-of-war and their tenders, and a guard constantly set over them, night 
and day. The sloop we had wholly to ourselves, except the guard who 
occupied the forecastle ; here we were cruelly pinched with hunger. 
It seemed to me that we had not more than one third of the common 
allowance. We were all seized with violent hunger and faintness—we 
divided our scanty allowance as exact as possible. I shared the same 
fate with the rest, and though they offered me more than an even share, 

I refused to accept it, as it was a time of substantial distress, which, in 
my opinion, I ought to partake equally with the rest, and set an example 
of virtue and fortitude to our little commonwealth. I sent letter after 
letter to Captain Montague, who still had the care of us, and also to his 
lieutenant, but could obtain no answer, much less a redress of grievances; 
and, to add to the calamity, near a dozen of the prisoners were dangerously 
ill of the scurvy. I wrote private letters to the doctors, to procure, if 
possible, some remedy for the sick, but in vain. The chief physician 
came by in a boat so close that the oars touched the sloop we were in, 
and I uttered my complaint in the genteelest manner to him, but he never 
so much as turned his head, or made me any answer, though I continued 
speaking till he got out of hearing. Our cause then became very deplor¬ 
able. Still I kept writing to the captain, till he ordered the guards, as 
they told me, not to bring any more letters from me to him. In the mean¬ 
time an event happened worth relating. One of the men almost dead of 
the scurvy, laid by the side of the sloop, and a canoe of Indians coming 
by, he purchased two quarts of strawberries, and ate them at once, and 
it almost cured him. The money he gave for them, was all the money 
he had in the world. 

Meanwhile the doctor’s mate of the Mercury came privately on board 
the prison sloop, and presented me with a large vial of smart drops, which 
proved to be good for the scurvy, though vegetables and some other 
ingredients were requisite for a cure ; but the drops gave at least a check 
to the disease. This was a well-timed exertion of humanity—and, in my 
opinion, was the means of saving the lives of several men. The guard 
which was set over us, was by this time touched with the feelings of com¬ 
passion ; and I finally trusted one of them with a letter of complaint to 
Governor Arbuthnot, of Halifax, which he found means to communicate, 
and which had the desired effect—for the governor sent an officer and 
surgeon on board the prison sloop, to know the truth of the complaint. 
The officer’s name was Russel, who held the rank of lieutenant, and 
treated me in a friendly and polite manner, and was really angry at the 
cruel and unmanly usage the prisoners met with; and with the surgeon 
made a report of matters to Governor Arbuthnot, who, either by his order 
or influence, took us next day from the prison sloop to Halifax gaol, 
The sick were taken to the hospital, and the Canadians who were effective, 
were employed in the king’s works; and when their countrymen were 
recovered from the scurvy, and joined them, they all deserted the king’s 
employ, and were not heard of at Halifax, as long as the remainder of 


ETHAN ALLEN’S NARRATIVE. 


145 

the prisoners continued there, which was till near the middle of October. 
We were on board the prison sloop about six weeks, and were landed at 
Halifax near the middle of August. Several of our English American 
prisoners, who were cured of the scurvy at the hospital, made their escape 
from thence, and after a long time reached their old habitations. I had 
now but thirteen with me of those that were taken in Canada, and remained 
in gaol with me in Halifax, who, in addition to those that were imprisoned 
before, made our number about thirty-four, who were all locked up in 
one common large room, without regard to rank; and as sundry of them 
were infected with the gaol and other distempers, the furniture of this 
spacious room consisted most principally of excrement tubs. 

As to the article of provisions, we were well served, much better than 
in any part of my captivity. Notwithstanding which I had not been more 
than three weeks in this place before I lost all appetite for the most 
delicious food by the gaol distemper, as sundry of the other prisoners. 
A doctor visited the sick, and did the best, as I suppose, he could for 
them, to no apparent purpose. I grew weaker and weaker, as did the 
rest. Several of them could not help themselves. At last I reasoned in 
my own mind, that raw onion would be good. I made use of it, and 
found immediate relief by it, as did the sick in general. In a few days 
after this the prisoners were ordered to go on board of a man-of-war, 
which was bound for New York. This was about the twelfth of October, 
and soon after I had got on board, the captain sent for me in particular 
to come on the quarter-deck. I went, expecting the same rigorous 
usage I had commonly met with, and prepared my mind accordingly ; but 
when I came on deck, the captain met me with his hand, welcomed me 
to his ship, invited me to dine with him that day, and assured me that I 
should be treated as a gentleman, and that he had given orders that I 
should be treated with respect by the ship’s crew. This was so unex¬ 
pected and sudden a transition that it drew tears from my eyes—which 
all the ill usage I had before met with was not able to produce—nor could 
I at first hardly speak, but soon recovered myself, and expressed my 
gratitude for so unexpected a favor, and let him know that I felt anxiety 
of my mind in reflecting that his situation and mine was such that it was 
not probable that it would ever be in my power to return the favor. 
Captain Smith replied, that he had no reward in view, but only treated 
me as a gentleman ought to be treated; he said, this is a mutable world, 
and one gentleman never knows but that it may be in his power to help 
another. 

I dined with the captain agreeable to his invitation, and oftentimes with 
the lieutenants, in the gun-room, but in general ate and drank with the 
gentlemen, who were prisoners with me, where I also slept. Captain 
Burk having been taken prisoner, was added to our company, (he had 
commanded an American armed vessel,) and was generously treated by 
the captain and all the officers of the ship. We now had in all near thirty 
prisoners on board, and as we were sailing along the coast, if I recollect 
right, off Rhode Island, Captain Burk, with an under officer of the ship, 
whose name I do not recollect, came to our little berth, proposed to kill 
Captain Smith and the principal officers of the frigate and take it; adding 
that there was 35,000/ sterling in the same. Captain Burk likewise 
averred that a strong party out of the ship’s crew was in the conspiracy, 
and urged me and the gentlemen that were with me to use our influence 
with the private prisoners, to execute the design, and take the ship, with 
the cash, into one of our own ports. Upon which I replied, that we had 
10 


ETHAN ALLEN’S NARRATIVE. 


146 

been too well used on board to murder the officers; that I could by no 
means reconcile it to my conscience, and that in fact it should not be done; 
and while I was yet speaking, my friend Lovel confirmed what I had 
said, and further pointed out the ungratefulness of such an act ; that it 
did not fall short of murder ; and, in fine, all the gentlemen in the berth 
opposed Captain Burk and his colleague. But they strenuously urged 
that the conspiracy would be found out, and that it would cost them their 
lives, provided they did not execute their design. I then interposed 
spiritedly, and put an end to further arguments on the subject, and told 
them that they might depend upon it, upon my honor, that I would faith¬ 
fully guard Captain Smith’s life. If they should attempt the assault, I 
would assist him, for they desired me to remain neuter, and that the same 
honor that guarded Captain Smith’s life, would also guard theirs; and it 
was agreed by those present not to reveal the conspiracy, to the intent 
that no man should be put to death in consequence of what had been 
projected ; and Captain Burk and his colleague went to stifle the matter 
among their associates. I could not help calling to mind what Captain 
Smith said to me, when I first came on board: “This is a mutable world , 
and one gentleman never knows but that it may be in his power to help 
another .” Captain Smith and his officers still behaved with their usual 
courtesy, and I never heard any more of the conspiracy. 

We arrived before New York the latter part of October, where we 
remained several days, and where Captain Smith informed me, that he. 
had recommended me to Admiral Howe and General Sir William Howe, 
as a gentleman of honor and veracity, and desired that I might be treated 
as such. Captain Burk was then ordered on board a prison ship in the 
harbor. I took my leave of Captain Smith, and, with the other prisoners, 
was sent on board a transport ship, which lay in the harbor, commanded 
by Captain Craige,who took me into the cabin with him and his lieutenant. 
I fared as they did, and was in every respect well treated in consequence 
of directions from Captain Smith. 

Some of the last days of November, the prisoners were landed at New 
York, and I was admitted to parole with the other officers. The privates 
were put into the filthy churches in New York, with the distressed prisoners 
that were taken at Fort Washington; and the second night serjeant Roger 
Moore, who was bold and enterprising, found means to make his escape 
with every one of the remaining prisoners that were taken with me, except 
three who were soon after exchanged. So that out of thirty-one prisoners, 
who went with me the round exhibited in these sheets, two only died 
with the enemy, and three only exchanged: one of them died after he 
came within our lines ; all the rest, at different times, made their escape 
from the enemy. I now found myself on parole, and restricted to the 
limits of the city of New York, where I soon projected means to live in 
some measure agreeable to my rank, though I was destitute of cash. My 
constitution was almost worn out by such a long and barbarous captivity. 
The enemy gave out that I was crazy, and wholly unmanned, but my 
vitals held sound, (nor was I delirous any more than I have been from my 
youth up; but my extreme circumstances at certain times, rendered it 
politic to act in some measure the madman,) and in consequence of a 
regular diet and exercise my blood recruited, and my nerves in great 
measure recovered their former tone, strength and usefulness, in the 
course of six months. 

I next invite the reader to a consideration of the scene of inhumanity 
exercised by General Sir William Howe, and the army under his command, 


ETHAN ALLEN’S NARRATIVE. 


147 

toward their prisoners. The private soldiers who were brought to New 
York were crowded into churches, and sometimes environed with slavish 
Hessian guards, a people of strange language, who were sent to America 
for no other design but cruelty and desolation; and at others, by merciless 
Britons, whose mode of communicating ideas being intelligible in this 
country, served only to tantalize and insult the helpless and perishing; 
but above all the hellish delight and triumph of the tories over them, as 
they were dying by hundreds. This was too much for me to bear as a 
spectator ; for 1 saw the tories exulting over the dead bodies of their 
murdered countrymen. I have gone into the churches, and seen sundry 
of the prisoners in the agonies of death, in consequence of very hunger, 
and others speechless and near death, biting pieces of chips ; others 
pleading, for God’s sake, for something to eat, and at the same time 
shivering with the cold. Hollow groans saluted my ears, and despair 
seemed to be imprinted on every one of their countenances. The filth 
in these churches, in consequence of the fluxes, was almost beyond de¬ 
scription. The floors were covered with excrements. I have carefully 
sought to direct my steps so as to avoid it, but could not. They would 
beg, for God’s sake, for one copper, or' morsel of bread. I have seen in 
one of these churches seven dead at the same time, lying among the 
excrements of their bodies. 

It was a common practice with the enemy to convey the dead from 
their filthy places in carts, to be slightly buried, and I have seen whole 
gangs of tories making derision, and exulting over the dead, saying, there 

goes another load of-rebels. I have observed the British soldiers 

to be full of their blackguard jokes and vaunting on those occasions, but 
they appeared to me less malignant than tories. The provision dealt out 
to the prisoners was by no means sufficient for the support of life. It 
was deficient in quantity, and much more so in quality. The prisoners 
often presented me with a sample of their bread, which I certify was 
damaged to that degree that it was loathsome and unfit to be eaten. 
Their allowance of meat, as they told me, was quite trifling, and of the 
basest sort. I never saw any of it, but was informed, bad as it was, it 
was swallowed almost as quick as they got hold of it. I saw some of them 
sucking bones after they were speechless ; others who could yet speak, 
and had the use of their reason, urged me in the strongest and most 
pathetic manner, to use my interest in their behalf. 

I was in one of the churchyards, and it was rumored among those in 
the church, and sundry of the prisoners came with their usual complaints 
to me, and among the rest a large-boned, tall young man, as he told me 
from Pennsylvania, who was reduced to a mere skeleton ; said he was 
glad to see me before he died, which he had expected to have done last 
night, but was a little revived; he furthermore informed me, that he and 
his brother had been urged to enlist into the British, but had both resolved 
to die first; that his brother had died last night, in consequence of that 
resolution, and that he expected shortly to follow him; but I made the 
other prisoners stand a little off, and told him with a low voice to list; he 
then asked, whether it was right in the sight of God? I assured him that 
it was, and that duty to himself obliged him to deceive the British by 
enlisting, and deserting the first opportunity. Upon which he answered 
with transport that he would list. I charged him not to mention my name 
as his adviser, lest it should get air, and I should be closely confined in 
consequence of it. The integrity of these suffering prisoners is hardly 
credible. Many hundreds, I am confident, submitted to death, rather 



148 ETHAN ALLEN’S NARRATIVE. 

than enlist in the British service, which, I am informed, they most generally 
were pressed to do. 

Near the last of November I was admitted to parole in New York, with 
many other American officers, and on the 22d day of January, 1777, was 
with them directed by the British commissary of prisoners to be quartered 
on the westerly part of Long Island, and our parole continued. On the 
third day of May, 1778, I was conducted to a sloop in the harbor at New 
York, in which I was guarded to Staten Island, to General Campbell’s 
quarters, where I was admitted to eat and drink with the general and 
several other of the British field-officers, and treated for two days in a 
polite manner. The next day Colonel Archibald Campbell (who was 
exchanged for me) came to this place conducted by Mr. Boudinot, the 
then American commissary of prisoners, and saluted me in a handsome 
manner, saying that he never was more glad to see any gentleman in his 
life. So we took a glass of wine together, and then I was accompanied 
by General Campbell, Colonel Campbell, Mr. Boudinot, and a number 
of British officers, to the boat, which was ready to sail to Elizabethtown 
Point. I sailed to the Point, and in a transport of joy, landed on liberty 
ground ; and as I advanced into the country, received the acclamations of 
a grateful people. 

In a few days I set out for Bennington, the capital of the Green 
Mountain Boys, where I arrived the evening of the last day of May to 
their great surprise ; for I was to them as one rose from the dead, and 
now their joy and mine was complete. Three cannon were fired that 
evening, and next morning Colonel Herrick gave orders, and fourteen 
more were discharged, welcoming me to Bennington, my usual place 
of abode. 


r 


INCIDENTS 

IN THE 

WAR WITH TRI P O L I: 

TO WHICH is added a narrative of the celebrated 


CHASE OF THE CONSTITUTION BY A BRITISH SQUADRON. 


The depredations committed on American commerce in the Mediter¬ 
ranean, by the piratical corsairs of the Barbary powers induced Congress 
to authorize the formation of a naval force for its protection. In the month 
of August, 1801, Captain Sterrett,of the United States schooner Enterprise, 
of twelve guns, and ninety men, fell in, off Malta, with a Tripolitan cruiser 
of fourteen guns, and eighty-five men. In this action the Tripolitans 
thrice hauled down her colors, and thrice perfidiously renewed the conflict. 
Fifty of her men were killed and wounded. The Enterprise did not lose 
a man! Captain Sterrett’s instructions not permitting him to make a 
prize of the cruiser, he ordered her crew to throw overboard all their guns 
and powder, etc., and to go and tell their countrymen the treatment they 
might expect from a nation, determined to pay tribute only in powder and 
ball. On her arrival at Tripoli, so great was the terror produced, that 
the sailors abandoned the cruisers then fitting out, and not a man could 
be procured to navigate them. 

The Tripolitan cruisers continuing to harass the vessels of the United 
States, Congress determined, in 1803, to fit out a fleet that should 
chastise their insolence. The squadron consisted of the Constitution, 
44 guns; the Philadelphia, 44; the Argus, 18; the Siren, 16; the Nautilus, 
16; the Vixen, 16; and the Enterprise, 12. Commodore Preble was 
appointed to the command of this squadron, in May, 1803, and on the 
thirteenth of August, sailed, ill the Constitution, for the Mediterranean. 
Having adjusted the difficulties which had sprung up with the emperor 
of Morocco, he turned his whole attention to Tripoli. The season was, 
however, too far advanced for active operations. 

On the thirty-first of October, the Philadelphia, being, at nine o’clock 
in the morning, about five leagues to the westward of Tripoli, discovered 
a sail in shore, standing before the wind to the eastward. The Philadel¬ 
phia immediately gave chase. The sail hoisted Tripolitan colors, and 
continued her course near the shore. The Philadelphia opened a fire 
upon her, and continued it till half past eleven; when, being in seven 
fathoms water, and finding her fire could not prevent the vessel entering 
Tripoli, she gave up the pursuit. In beating off, she ran on a rock, not 
laid down in any chart, distant four and a half miles from the town. A 
boat was immediately lowered to sound. The greatest depth of water 
was found to be astern. In order to back her off, all sails were then 
laid aback; the topgallant-sails loosened; three anchors thrown away 
from the bows; the water in the hold started; and all the guns thrown 

( 149 ) 



INCIDENTS IN THE WAR WITH TRIPOLI. 


150 

overboard, excepting a few abaft to defend the ship against the attacks 
of the Tripolitan gunboats, then firing at her. All this, however, proved 
ineffectual; as did also the attempt to lighten her forward by cutting 
away her foremast. The Philadelphia had already withstood the attack 
of the numerous gunboats for four hours, when a large reinforcement 
coming out of Tripoli, and being herself deprived of every means of 
resistance and defense, she was forced to strike, about sunset. The 
Tripolitans immediately took possession of her, and made prisoners of 
the officers and men, in number three hundred. Forty-eight hours after¬ 
ward, the wind blowing in shore, the Tripolitans got the frigate off, and 
towed her into the harbor. 

On the seventeenth of December, 1803, Commodore Preble, after 
making his preparations and disposing of his force in different ways, 
sailed for Tripoli, with the Enterprise in company, off which place he now 
appeared for the first time. The twenty-third of the month, the Enter¬ 
prise 12, Lieutenant Commandant Decatur, fell in with and captured a 
ketch, called the Mastico, with seventy souls on board. 

In a letter of the date of the fifth of December, 1803, Captain Bain- 
bridge suggested the possibility of destroying the Philadelphia, which 
ship was slowly fitting for sea, there being little doubt of her being sent 
out as a cruiser, as soon as the mild season should return. Commodore 
Preble listened to the suggestion, and being much in the society of the 
commander of the vessel that was most in company with the Constitution, 
Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, he mentioned the project to that spirited 
officer. The expedition was just suited to the ardor and temperament of 
Mr. Decatur, and the possession of the Mastico at once afforded the 
means of carrying it into effect. The ketch was accordingly appraised, 
named the Intrepid, and taken into the service, as a tender. About this 
time, Lieutenant Commandant Stewart, of the Siren, the officer who was 
then second in command in the Mediterranean, and who had just arrived 
from below, offered to cut out the Philadelphia with his own brig; but 
Commodore Preble was pledged to Mr. Decatur, who, at first, had pro¬ 
posed to run in with the Enterprise and carry the ship. The more 
experienced Preble rejected the propositions of both these ardent young 
men, substituting a plan of his own. 

Although Commodore Preble declined the proposal of Mr. Decatur to 
carry in the Enterprise, the projected service was assigned to the com¬ 
mander and crew of that schooner. It being necessary, however, to leave 
some of her own officers and people in her, a selection of a few gentlemen 
to join in the expedition, was made from the flag ship, and orders to tha< 
effect were issued accordingly. These orders were dated February the 
third, 1804, and they directed the different gentlemen named to report 
themselves to Lieutenant Commandant Decatur, of the Enterprise. As 
it was intended that the crew of the schooner should furnish the entire 
crew of the ketch, it was not thought proper to add any men to this craft. 
In short, the duty was strictly assigned to the Enterprise, so far as her 
complement could furnish tho officers required. On the afternoon of 
the third, according to the orders they had just received, Messrs. Izard, 
Morris, Laws, Davis, and Rowe, midshipmen of the Constitution, went 
on board the schooner, and reported themselves for duty to her commander. 
All hands were now called in the Enterprise, when Lieutenant Com¬ 
mandant Decatur acquainted his people with the destination of the ketch, 
and asked for volunteers. Every man and boy in the schooner presented 
himself, as ready, and willing to go. Sixty-two of the most active men 


INCIDENTS IN THE WAR WITH TRIPOLI. 151 

were selected, and the remainder, with a few officers, were left to take 
care of the vessel. As the orders to destroy the frigate, and not to at¬ 
tempt to bring her out, were peremptory, the combustibles, which had 
been prepared for this purpose, were immediately sent on board the 
Intrepid, her crew followed, and that evening the ketch sailed, under the 
convoy of the Siren 16, Lieutenant Commandant Stewart, who was properly 
the senior officer of the expedition, though, owing to the peculiar nature 
of the service, Mr. Decatur was permitted to conduct the more active 
part of the duty, at his own discretion. 

The party in the ketch consisted of Lieutenant Commandant Decatur; 
Lieutenants Lawrence, Bainbridge, and Thorn; Mr. Thomas M’Donough, 
midshipman, and Dr. Heerman, surgeon; all of the Enterprise;—Messrs. 
Izard, Morris, Laws, Davis, and Rowe, midshipmen, of the Constitution; 
and Salvatore Catalano the pilot, with sixty-two petty officers and common 
men, making a total of seventy-four souls. 

On the sixteenth, about noon, calculating that they were abreast of the 
town, and the wind and weather being, in all respects, favorable, both 
vessels kept away, the ketch leading some distance, in order that the 
enemy might not suppose her a consort of the Siren’s although the latter 
was so much disguised, as to render it impossible to recognize her. 
The wind was fair, but light, and everything looking favorable; Mr. Decatur 
now seriously made his dispositions for the attack. Apprehensive that 
they might have been seen, and that the enemy had possibly strengthened 
the party on board the frigate, Lieutenant Commandant Stewart sent a 
boat and eight men from the Siren, to the ketch, under the orders of one 
of his midshipmen, Mr. Anderson, which reinforcement increased the 
numbers of the intended assailants to eighty-two, all told. 

As the ketch drew in with the land, the Philadelphia became visible. 
She lay not quite a mile within the entrance, riding to the wind, and 
abreast of the town. Her foremast, which had been cut away while she 
was on the reef, had not yet been replaced, her main and mizzen-topmasts 
were housed, and her lower yards were on the gunwales. Her lower 
standing rigging, however, was in its place, and, as was shortly afterward 
ascertained, her guns were loaded and shotted. Just within her, lay 
two corsairs, with a few gun-boats, and a galley or two. 

It was a mild evening for the season, and the sea and bay were smooth 
as in summer. Perceiving that he was likely to get in too soon, when 
about five miles from the rocks, Mr. Decatur ordered buckets and other 
drags to be towed astern, in order to lessen the way of the ketch, without 
shortening sail, as the latter expedient would have been seen from the 
port, and must have awakened suspicion. In the meantime the wind 
gradually fell, until it became so light as to leave the ketch but about 
two knot’s way on her, when the drags were removed. 

About ten o’clock the Intrepid reached the eastern entrance of the bay, 
or the passage between the rocks and the shoal. The wind was nearly 
east, and, as she steered directly for the frigate, it was well abaft the 
beam. There was a young moon, and as the bold adventurers were 
slowly advancing into the hostile port, all around them was tranquil and 
apparently without distrust. For near an hour they were stealing 
slowly along, the air gradually failing, until their motion became scarcely 
perceptible. 

Most of the officers and men of the ketch had been ordered to lie on 
the deck, where they were concealed by low bulwarks, or weather-boards, 
and by the different objects that belong to a vessel. As it is the practice 


INCIDENTS IN THE WAR WITH TRIPOLI. 


152 

of those seas to carry many men even in the smallest craft, the appearance 
of ten or twelve would excite no alarm, and this number was visible. 
The commanding officer, himself, stood near the pilot, who was to act as 
interpreter. The quartermaster at the helm, was ordered to stand directly 
for the frigate’s bows, it being the intention to lay the ship aboard in 
that place, as the mode of attack which would least expose the assailants 
to her fire. 

The Intrepid was still at a considerable distance from the Philadelphia, 
when the latter hailed. The pilot answered that the ketch belonged to 
Malta, and was on a trading voyage; that she had been nearly wrecked, 
and had lost her anchors in the late gale, and that her commander wished 
to ride by the frigate during the night. This conversation lasted some 
time, Mr. Decatur instructing the pilot to tell the frigate’s people with 
what he was laden, in order to amuse them, and the Intrepid gradually 
drew nearer, until there was every prospect of her running foul of the 
Philadelphia, in a minute or two, and at the very spot contemplated. But 
the wind suddenly shifted, and took the ketch aback. The instant the 
southerly puff struck her, her head fell off, and she got a stern-board, the 
ship, at the same moment, tending to the new current of air. The effect 
of this unexpected change was to bring the ketch directly under the 
frigate’s broadside, at the distance of about forty yards, where she lay 
becalmed, or, if anything, drifting slowly astern, exposed to nearly every 
one of the Philadelphia’s larboard guns. 

Not the smallest suspicion appears to have been yet excited on board 
the frigate, though several of her people were looking over the rails; 
and, notwithstanding the moonlight, so completely were the Turks 
deceived, that they lowered a boat, and sent it with a fast. Some of the 
ketch’s men, in the meantime, had got into her boat, and had run a line 
to the frigate’s forechains. As they returned, they met the frigate’s boat, 
took the fast it brought, which came from the after part of the ship, and 
passed it into their own vessel. These fasts were put into the hands of 
the men, as they lay on the ketch’s deck, and they began cautiously to 
breast the Intrepid along side of the Philadelphia, without rising. As 
soon as the latter got near enough to the ship, the Turks discovered her 
anchors, and they sterilly ordered the ketch to keep off, as she had 
deceived them; preparing, at the same time, to cut the fasts. All this 
passed in a moment, when the cry of “Amerikanos” was heard in the 
ship. The people of the Intrepid by a strong pull, brought their vessel 
along side of the frigate, where she was secured, quick as thought. Up 
to this moment, not a whisper had betrayed the presence of the men 
concealed. The instructions had been positive to keep quiet until com¬ 
manded to show themselves, and no precipitation, even in that trying 
moment, deranged the plan. 

Lieutenant Commandant Decatur was standing ready for a spring, with 
Messrs. Laws and Morris quite near him. As soon as close enough, he 
jumped at the frigate’s chain-plates, and while clinging to the ship him¬ 
self, he gave the order to board. The two midshipmen were at his side, 
and all the officers and men of the Intrepid arose and followed. The 
three gentlemen named were in the chains together, and Lieutenant 
Commandant Decatur and Mr. Morris sprang at the rail above them, 
while Mr. Laws dashed at a port. To the latter would have belonged 
the honor of having been first in this gallant assault, but wearing a board¬ 
ing-belt, his pistols were caught between the gun and the side of the 
port. Decatur’s foot slipped in springing, and Mr. Charles Morris 


INCIDENTS IN THE WAR WITH TRIPOLI. 


153 

first stood upon the quarter-deck of the Philadelphia. In an instant 
Lieutenant Commandant Decatur and Mr. Laws were at his side, while 
heads and bodies appeared coming over the rail, and through the ports 
in all directions. 

The surprise appears to have been as perfect, as the assault was rapid 
and earnest. Most of the Turks on deck crowded forward, and all ran 
over to the starboard-side, as their enemies poured in on the larboard, 
A few were aft, but as soon as charged, they leaped into the sea. Indeed, 
the constant plunges into the water, gave the assailants the assurance 
that their enemies were fast lessening in numbers by flight. It took but 
a minute or two to clear the spar-deck, though there was more of a 
struggle below. Still, so admirably managed was the attack, and so 
complete the surprise, that the resistance was but trifling. In less than 
ten minutes Mr. Decatur was on the quarter-deck again, in undisturbed 
possession of his prize. 

There can be no doubt that this gallant officer now felt bitter regrets, 
that it was not in his power to bring away the ship he had so nobly re¬ 
covered. Not only were his orders on this point peremptory, however, 
but the frigate had not a sail bent, nor a yard crossed, and she wanted her 
foremast. It was next to impossible, therefore, to remove her, and the 
command was given to pass up the combustibles from the ketch. 

The duty of setting fire to the prize, appears to have been executed 
with as much promptitude and order, as every other part of the service. 
The officers distributed themselves, agreeably to the previous instructions, 
and the men soon appeared with the necessary means. Each party acted 
by itself, and as it got ready. So rapid were they all in their movements, * 
that the men with combustibles had scarcely time to get as low as the cock¬ 
pit and after store-rooms, before the fires were lighted over their heads. 
When the officer entrusted with the duty last mentioned, had got through, 
he found the after-hatches filled with smoke, from the fire in the ward¬ 
room and steerage, and he was obliged to make his escape by the forward 
ladders. 

The Americans were in the ship from twenty to twenty-five minutes, 
and they were literally driven out of her by the flames. The vessel had 
got to be so dry in that low latitude, that she burnt like pine; and the 
combustibles had been as judiciously prepared, as they were steadily 
used. The last party up, were the people who had been in the store¬ 
rooms, and when they reached the deck, they found most of their 
companions already in the Intrepid. Joining them, and ascertaining 
that all was ready, the order was given to cast off. Notwithstanding the 
daring character of the enterprise in general, Decatur and his party now 
ran the greatest risk they had incurred that night. So fierce had the 
conflagration already become, that the flames began to pour out of the 
ports, and the head-fast having been cast off, the ketch fell astern, with 
her jigger flapping against the quarter-gallery, and her boom foul. The 
fire showed itself in the window, at this critical moment; and beneath, 
was all the ammunition of the party, covered with a tarpaulin. To in¬ 
crease the risk, the stern-fast was jammed. By using swords, however, 
for there was not time to look for an ax, the hawser was cut, and the 
Intrepid was extricated from the most imminent danger, by a vigorous 
shove. As she swung clear of the frigate, the flames reached the rigging, 
up which they went hissing, like a rocket, the tar having oozed from the 
ropes, which had been saturated with that inflammable matter. Matches 
could not have kindled with greater quickness. 


INCIDENTS IN THE WAR WITH TRIPOLI. 


154 

The sweeps were now manned. Up to this moment, everything had been 
done earnestly, though without noise, but, as soon as they felt that they 
had got command of their ketch again, and by two or three vigorous 
strokes had sent her away from the frigate, the people of the Intrepid 
ceased rowing, and as one" man, they gave three cheers for victory. This 
appeared to arouse the Turks from their stupor, for the cry had hardly 
ended, when the batteries, the two corsairs, and the galley, poured in 
their fire. The men lay hold of the sweeps again, of which the Intrepid 
had eight of a side, and favored by a light air, they went rapidly down 
the harbor. 

The spectacle that followed, is described as having been both beautiful 
and sublime. The entire bay was illuminated by the conflagration, the 
roar of cannon was constant, and Tripoli was in a clamor. The 
appearance of the ship was, in the highest degree, magnificent; and, to 
add to the effect, as her guns heated, they began to go off. Owing to 
the shift of wind, and the position into which she had tended, she, in 
some measure, returned the enemy’s fire, as one of her broadsides was 
discharged in the direction of the town, and the other toward Fort English. 
The most singular effect of this conflagration was on board the ship, for 
the flames having run up the rigging and masts, collected under the tops, 
and fell over, giving the whole the appearance of glowing columns and 
fiery capitals. 

Under ordinary circumstances, the situation of the ketch would still 
have been thought sufficiently perilous, but after the exploit they had just 
performed, her people, elated with success, regarded all that was now 
passing, as a triumphant spectacle. The shot constantly cast the spray 
around them, or were whistling over their heads, but the only sensation 
they produced, was by calling attention to the brilliant jets d?eau that 
they occasioned as they bounded along the water. But one struck the 
Intrepid, although she was within half a mile of many of the heaviest 
guns for some time, and that passed through her topgallant sail. 

With sixteen sweeps, and eighty men elated with success, Decatur was 
enabled to drive the little Intrepid ahead with a velocity that rendered 
towing useless. Near the harbor’s mouth, he met the Siren’s boats, sent to 
cover his retreat, but their services were scarcely necessary. As soon 
as the ketch was out of danger, he got into one, and pulled aboard the 
brig, to report to Lieutenant Commandant Stewart, the result of his 
undertaking. 

The Siren had got into the offing some time after the Intrepid, agree¬ 
ably to arrangements, and anchored about three miles from the rocks. 
Here she hoisted out the launch and a cutter, manned and armed them, 
and sent them in, under Mr. Caldwell, her first lieutenant. Soon after 
the brig weighed, and the wind having entirely failed outside, she swept 
into eight fathoms water, and anchored again, to cover the retreat, should 
the enemy attempt to board the Intrepid, with his gun-boats. It will 
readily be supposed that it was an anxious moment, and as the moon rose, 
all eyes were on the frigate. After waiting in intense expectation near 
an hour, a rocket went up from the Philadelphia. It was the signal of 
possession, and Mr. Stewart ran below to get another for the answer 
He was gone only a moment, but when he returned, the fire was seen 
shining through the frigate’s ports, and in a few more minutes, the flames 
were rushing up her rigging, as if a train had been touched. Then 
followed the cannonade, and the dashing of sweeps, with the approach 
of the ketch. Presently a boat was seen coming along side, and a man. 


INCIDENTS IN THE WAR WITH TRIPOLI. 


155 

in a sailor’s jacket, sprang over the gangway of the brig. It was Decatur, 
himself, to announce his victory!” 

After the destruction of the Philadelphia frigate, Commodore Preble 
was, during the spring and early part of the summer, employed in keeping 
up the blockade of the harbor of Tripoli, in preparing for an attack upon 
the town and in cruising. 

“ When the American commander assembled his whole force before 
Tripoli, on the twenty-fifth of July, 1804, it consisted of the Constitution 
44, Commodore Preble; Siren 16, Lieutenant Commandant Stewart; 
Argus 16, Lieutenant Commandant Hull; Scourge 14, Lieutenant Com¬ 
mandant Dent; Vixen 12, Lieutenant Commandant Smith; Nautilus 12, 
Lieutenant Commandant Somers; Enterprise 12, Lieutenant Commandant 
Decatur; the two bomb-vessels, and six gunboats. In some respects this 
was a well appointed force for the duty required, while in others it was 
lamentably deficient. Another heavy ship, in particular, was wanted, 
and the means for bombarding had all the defects that may be anticipated. 
The two heaviest brigs had armaments of twenty-four pound carronades; 
the other brig, and two of the schooners, armaments of eighteen-pound 
carronades ; while the Enterprise retained her original equipment of 
long sixes, in consequence of her ports being unsuited to the new guns. 
As the Constitution had a gun-deck battery of thirty long twenty-fours, 
with six long twenty-sixes, and some lighter long guns above, it follows 
that the Americans could bring twenty-two twenty-fours and six twenty- 
sixes to bear on the stone walls of the town, in addition to a few light 
chase-guns in the small vessels, and the twelve-pounders of the frigate’s 
quarter-deck and forecastle. On the whole, there appears to have been 
in the squadron, twenty-eight heavy long guns, with about twenty lighter, 
that might be brought to play on the batteries simultaneously. Opposed 
to these means of offense, the bashaw had one hundred and fifteen guns 
in battery, most of them quite heavy, and nineteen gun-boats that, of 
themselves, so far as metal was concerned, were nearly equal to the 
frigate. Moored in the harbor were also two large galleys, two schooners, 
and a brig, all of which were armed and strongly manned. The Ameri¬ 
can squadron was manned by one thousand and sixty persons, all told, 
while the bashaw had assembled a force that has been estimated as high 
as twenty-five thousand, Arabs and Turks included. The only advanta¬ 
ges possessed by the assailants, in the warfare that is so soon to follow, 
were those which are dependent on spirit, discipline, and system. 

On the third of August, 1804, the squadron ran in and got within a 
league of the town, with a pleasant breeze at the eastward. The enemy’s 
gun-boats and galleys had come outside of the rocks, and were lying 
there in two divisions; one near the eastern, and the other near the 
western entrance, or about half a mile apart. At the same time, it was 
seen that all the batteries were manned, as if an attack was not only 
expected, but invited. 

At half-past twelve, the Constitution wore with her head off shore, and 
showed a signal for all vessels to come within hail. As he came up, 
each commander was ordered to prepare to attack the shipping and bat¬ 
teries. The bomb-vessels and gun-boats were immediately manned, and 
such was the high state of discipline in the squadron, that in one hour, 
everything was ready for the contemplated service. 

On this occasion, Commodore Preble made the following distribution 
of that part of his force, which was manned from the other vessels of 
his squadron: 


INCIDENTS IN THE WAR WITH TRIPOLI. 


156 

One bombard was commanded by Lieut. Commandant Dent, of the 
Scourge. The other bombard by Mr. Robinson, first lieutenant of the 
Constitution. 

FIRST DIVISION OF GUN-BOATS. 

No. 1. Lieut. Com. Somers, of the Nautilus. 

“ 2. Lieut. James Decatur, of the Nautilus. 

“ 3. Lieut. Blake, of the Argus. 

SECOND DIVISION OF GUN-BOATS. 

No. 4. Lieut. Com. Decatur, of the Enterprise. 

“ 5. Lieut. Bainbridge, of the Enterprise. 

“ 6. Lieut. Trippe, of the Vixen. 

At half-past one, the Constitution wore again, and stood toward the 
town. At two, the gun-boats were cast off, and formed in advance, 
covered by the brigs and schooners, and half an hour later, the signal 
was shown to engage. The attack was commenced by the two bombards, 
which began to throw shells into the town. It was followed by the bat¬ 
teries, which were instantly in a blaze, and then the shipping on both 
sides opened their fire, with reach of grape. 

The eastern, or most weatherly division of the enemy’s gun-boats, nine 
in number, as being least supported, was the aim of the American gun¬ 
boats. But the bad qualities of the latter craft were quickly apparent, 
for, as soon as Mr. Decatur steered toward the enemy, with an intention 
to come to close quarters, the division of Mr. Somers, which was a little 
to leeward, found it difficult to sustain him. Every effort was made by 
the latter officer, to get far enough to windward to join in the attack, but 
finding it impracticable, he bore up, and ran down alone on five of the 
enemy to leeward, and engaged them all within pistol-shot, throwing 
showers of grape, cannister, and musket-balls among them. In order to 
do this, as soon as near enough, the sweeps were got out, and the boat 
was backed astern to prevent her from drifting in among the enemy. 
No. 3 was closing fast, but a signal of recall being shown from the Con¬ 
stitution, she hauled out of the line to obey, and losing ground, she kept 
more aloof, firing at the boats and shipping in the harbor, while No. 2, 
Mr. James Decatur, was enabled to join the division to windward. No. 
5, Mr. Bainbridge, lost her latine-yard, while still in tow of the Siren, but, 
though unable to close, she continued advancing, keeping up a heavy 
fire, and finally touched on the rocks. 

By these changes, Lieutenant Commandant Decatur had three boats 
that dashed forward with him, though one belonged to the division of Mr. 
Somers, viz. No. 4, No. 6, and No. 2. The officers in command of these 
three boats, went steadily on, until within the smoke of the enemy. Here 
they delivered their fire, throwing in a terrible discharge of grape and 
musket-balls, and the order was given to board. Up to this moment, the 
odds had been as three to one against the assailants, and it was now, if 
possible increased. The brigs and schooner could no longer assist. 
The Turkish boats were not only the heaviest and the best in every sense, 
but they were much the strongest manned. The combat now assumed 
a character of chivalrous prowess and of desperate personal efforts, that 
belongs to the middle ages, rather than to struggles of our own times. 
Its details, indeed, savor more of the glow of romance, than of the sober 
severity that we are accustomed to associate with reality. 

Lieutenant Commandant Decatur took the lead. He had no sooner 
discharged his shower of musket-balls, than No. 4 was laid along side 


INCIDENTS IN THE WAR WITH TRIPOLI. 157 

the opposing boat of the enemy, and he went, into her, followed by Lieu¬ 
tenant Thorn, Mr. M’Donough, and all the Americans of his crew. The 
Tripolitan boat was divided nearly into two parts, by a long open hatch¬ 
way, and as the people of No. 4 came in on one side, the Turks retreated 
to the other, making a sort of ditch of the open space. This caused an 
instant of delay, and, perhaps, fortunately, for it permitted the assailants 
to act together. As soon as ready, Mr. Decatur charged round each 
end of the hatchway, and after a short struggle, a portion of the Turks 
were piked and bayoneted, while the restsubmitted, or leaped into the water. 

No sooner had Mr. Decatur got possession of the boat first assailed, 
than he took her in tow, and bore down on the one next to leeward. 
Running the enemy aboard, as before, he went into him, with most of his 
officers and men. The captain of the Tripolitan vessel was a large pow¬ 
erful man, and Mr. Decatur personally charged him with a pike. The 
weapon, however, was seized by the Turk, wrested from the hands of 
the assailant, and turned against its owner. The latter parried a thrust, 
and made a blow with his sword at the pike, with a view to cut off its 
head. The sword hit the iron, and broke at the hilt, and at the next 
instant the Turk made another thrust. Nothing was left to the gallant 
Decatur, but his arm, with which he so far averted the blow, as to receive 
the pike through the flesh of one breast. Pushing the iron from the 
wound, by tearing the flesh, he sprang within the weapon, and grappled 
his antagonist. The pike fell between the two, and a short trial of strength 
succeeded, in which the Turk prevailed. As the combatants fell, however, 
Mr. Decatur so far released himself as to lie side by side with his foe on 
the deck. The Tripolitan now endeavored to reach his poniard, while 
his hand was firmly held by that of his enemy. [Some accounts state 
that he had drawn his dirk, and had raised his arm to strike.] At this 
critical instant, when life or death depended on a moment well employed, 
or a moment lost, Decatur drew a small pistol from a pocket, passed 
the arm that was free round the body of the Turk, pointed the muzzle 
in, and fired. The ball passed entirely through the body of the Mussel- 
man, and lodged in the clothes of his foe. At the same instant, Decatur 
felt the grasp that had almost smothered him relax, and he was liberated. 
He sprang up, and the Tripolitan lay dead at his feet. 

[During the continuance of this terrible struggle, the crews of each 
vessel impetuously rushed to the assistance of their respective com¬ 
manders. Such was the carnage in this furious and desperate battle, 
that it was with difficulty Decatur could extricate himself from the killed 
and wounded, by which he was surrounded. In this affair an American 
sailor, Reuben James, of Delaware, manifested the most heroic self-devo¬ 
tion. Seeing a Tripolitan officer, aiming a blow at Decatur’s head while he 
was struggling with his prostrate foe, and which must have proved fatal, 
had not the generous and fearless tar, who had been deprived of the use of 
both his hands, by severe wounds, rushed between the saber and his 
commander, and received the blow on his head, by which his skull was 
fractured.] 

An idea of the desperate nature of the fighting that distinguished this 
remarkable assault, may be gained from the amount of the loss. The 
two boats captured by Lieutenant Commandant Decatur, had about eighty 
men in them, of whom fifty-two are known to have been killed and wounded; 
most of the latter very badly. As only eight prisoners were made who 
were not wounded, and many jumped overboard, and swam to the rocks, 
it is not improbable that the Turks suffered still more severely. Lie utenant 


INCIDENTS IN THE WAR WITH TRIPOLI. 


158 

Commandant Decatur himself being wounded, he secured his second 
prize, and hauled off to rejoin the squadron; all the rest of the enemy’s 
division that were not taken, having, by this time, run into the harbor, by 
passing through the openings between the rocks. 

While Lieutenant Commandant Decatur was thus employed to windward, 
his brother, Mr. James Decatur, the first lieutenant of the Nautilus, was 
nobly emulating his example in No. 2. Reserving his fire like No. 4, 
this young officer dashed into the smoke, and was on the point of boarding, 
when he received a musket ball in his forehead. The boats met and 
rebounded; and in the confusion of the death of the commanding officer 
of No. 2, the Turk was enabled to escape, under a heavy fire from the 
Americans. It was said, at the time, that the enemy had struck before 
Mr. Decatur fell, though the fact must remain in doubt. It is, however, 
believed that he sustained a very severe loss. 

In the mean time, Mr. Trippe, in No. 6, the last of the three boats that 
were able to reach the weather division, was not idle. Reserving his 
fire, like the others, he delivered it with deadly effect, when closing, and 
went aboard of his enemy in the smoke. In this instance, the boats also 
separated by the shock of the collision, leaving Mr. Trippe, with Mr. J. 
D. Henley, and nine men only, on board the Tripolitan. Here, too, 
commanders singled each other out, and a severe personal combat occurred 
while the work of death was going on around them. The Turk w r as young, 
and of a large atheletic form, and he soon compelled his slighter but 
more active foe to fight with caution. Advancing on Mr. Trippe, he 
would strike a blow and receive a thrust in return. In this manner, he 
gave the American commander no less than eight saber wounds in the 
head, and two in the breast; when, making a sudden rush, he struck a 
ninth blow on the head, which brought Mr. Trippe upon a knee. Rally¬ 
ing all his force in a desperate effort, the latter, who still retained the short 
pike with which he fought, made a thrust that passed the weapon through 
his gigantic adversary, and tumbled him on his back. As soon as the 
Tripolitan officer fell, the remainder of his people submitted. 

The boat taken by Mr. Trippe, was one of the largest belonging to the 
bashaw. The number of her men is not positively known, but, living and 
dead, thirty-six were found in her, of whom twenty-one were either killed 
or wounded. When it is remembered that but eleven Americans boarded 
her, the achievement must pass for one of the most gallant on record. 

All this time the cannonade and bombardment continued without ceasing. 
Lieutenant Commandant Somers, in No. 1, sustained by the brigs and 
schooners, had forced the remaining boats to retreat, and this resolute 
officer pressed them so hard, as to be compelled to ware within a short 
distance of a battery of twelve guns, quite near the mole. Her destruc¬ 
tion seemed inevitable, as the boat came slowly round, when a shell fell 
into the battery, most opportunely, blew up the platform, and drove the 
enemy out, to a man. Before the guns could be again used the boat had 
got in tow of one of the small vessels. 

There was a division of five boats and two galleys of the enemy, that 
had been held in reserve within the rocks, and these rallied their retreating 
countrymen, and made two efforts to come out and intercept the Americans 
and their prizes, but they were kept in check by the fire of the frigate and 
small vessels. The Constitution maintained a very heavy fire, and 
silenced several of the batteries, though they re-opened as soon as she 
had passed. The bombards were covered with the spray of shot, but 
continued to throw shells to the last. 


INCIDENTS IN THE WAR WITH TRIPOLI. 159 

At half past four, the wind coming round to the northward, a signal 
was made for the gun-boats and bomb-vessels to rejoin the small ves¬ 
sels, and another to take them and the prizes in tow. The last order 
was handsomely executed by the brigs and schooners, under cover of a 
blaze of fire from the frigate. A quarter of an hour later, the Constitution 
herself hauled off, and ran out of gun-shot. 

Thus terminated the first serious attack that was made on the town and 
batteries of Tripoli. Its effect on the enemy, was of the most salutary 
kind; the manner in which their gun-boats had been taken, by boarding, 
having made a lasting and deep impression. The superiority of the 
Christians in gunnery, was generally admitted before, but here was an 
instance in which the Turks had been overcome, by inferior numbers, 
hand to hand, a species of conflict in which they had been thought parti¬ 
cularly to excel. Perhaps no instance of more desperate fighting of the 
sort, without defensive armor, is to be found in the pages of history. Three 
gun-boats were sunk in the harbor, in addition to the three that were taken, 
and the loss of the Tripolitans by shot, must have been very heavy. 
About fifty shells were thrown into the town, but little damage appears to 
hive been done in this way, very few of the bombs, on account of the 

perfect materials that had been furnished, exploding. The batteries 
‘were a good deal damaged, but the town suffered no essent.al injury. 

On the part of the Americans, only fourteen were killed and wounded 
in the affair, and all of these, with the exception of one man, belonged 
to the gun-boats. The Constitution, though under fire two hours, escaped 
much better than could have been expected. She received one heavy 
shot through her mainmast, had a quarter-deck gun injured, and was a 
good deal cut up aloft. The enemy had calculated his range for a more 
distant cannonade, and generally overshot the ships. By this mistake, 
the Constitution had her main-royal yard shot away. 

Among those who greatly distinguished themselves on this occasion, 
was Lieutenant Richard Somers, between whom and Decatur existed a 
noble friendship that was well fitting the chivalrous nature of their dis¬ 
positions. The mystery connected with his death a month later, has 
lent a romantic interest to his memory. The circumstances as far as 
known, are here detailed. 

After several unsuccessful enterprises to force the enemy to terms, it 
was resolved to fit up the ketch “Intrepid” in the double capacity of 
fire-ship and infernal, and to send her into the inner harbor, of Tripoli, 
there to explode, in the very center of the vessels of the Turks. As her 
deck was to be covered with a large quantity of powder, shells, and 
missiles, it was hoped the town would suffer not less than the shipping 
The panic created by such an assault, made in the dead of night, it was 
fondly hoped would produce an instant peace; and more especially the 
liberation of the frigate Philadelphia, whose officers and crew were 
thought to have been reduced to extreme suffering by the barbarity of 
their captors. 

The imminent danger of the service forbade the commodore ordering 
any of his officers upon it; and Somers, with whom the conception of this 
daring scheme is supposed to have originated, volunteered to take the 
command. 

“On the afternoon of the fourth of September, Somers prepared to 
leave the Nautilus, with a full determination to carry the ketch into 
Tripoli that night. Previously to quitting his own vessel, he felt that it 
would be proper to point out the desperate nature of the enterprise to the 


INCIDENTS IN THE WAR WITH TRIPOLI. 


160 

four men he had selected, that their services might be perfectly free and 
voluntary. He told them that he wished no man to accompany him, who 
would not prefer being blown up to being taken; that such was his own de¬ 
termination, and that he wished all who went with him to be the same way 
of thinking. The boats now gave three cheers in answer; and each man 
is said to have separately asked to be selected to apply the match. Once 
assured of the temper of his companions, Somers took leave of his officers; 
the boat’s crew doing the same, shaking hands, and expressing their 
feelings, as if they felt assured of their fate in advance. Each of the four 
men made his will verbally; disposing of his effects among the shipmates, 
like those about to die. Several of Somers’ friends visited him on board 
the Intrepid before she got under way. Among them were Stewart and 
Decatur, with whom he had commenced his naval career in the United 
States. These three young men, then about twenty-six years of age 
each, were Philadelphia-bred sailors, and had been intimately associated 
in service for the lakt six years. They all knew that the enterprise was 
one of extreme hazard, and the two who were to remain behind felt a 
deep interest in the fate of him who was to go in. Somers was grave, 
and entirely without any affectation of levity or indifference; but he 
maintained his usual tranquil and quiet manner. After some conversation, 
he took a ring from his finger, and breaking it into three pieces, gave 
each of his companions one, while he retained the third himself.” 

Two boats accompanied the ketch to bring off the party just after setting 
fire to the train. In the whole there were thirteen men, all volunteers. 

About nine o’clock in the evening Lieutenant Reed was the last to 
leave the ketch for his own vessel. “ When he went over the side of 
the Intrepid, all communication between the gallant spirits she contained 
and the rest of the world ceased. At that time everything seemed 
propitious. Somers was cheerful, though calm; and perfect order and 
method prevailed in the little craft. The leave-taking was affectionate 
and serious with the officers, though the common men appeared to be 
in high spirits.” 

The ketch was seen to proceed cautiously into the bay, but was soon 
obscured by the haze on the water. “ It was not long before the enemy 
began to fire at the ketch, which by this time was quite near the batteries, 
though the reports were neither rapid or numerous. At this moment, 
near ten o’clock, Captain Stewart and Lieutenant Carrol were standing 
in the Siren’s gangway, looking intently toward the place where the ketch 
was known to be, when the latter exclaimed, ‘Look! see the light!’ At 
that instant a light was seen passing and waving, as if a lantern were 
carried by some person in quick motion along a vessel’s deck. Then it 
sunk from view. Half a minute may have elapsed, when the whole fir¬ 
mament was lighted with a fiery glow; a burning mast with its sails was 
seen in the air; the whole harbor was momentarily illuminated; the awful 
explosion came, and a darkness like that of doom succeeded. The whole 
was over in less than a minute; the flame, the quaking of towers, the 
reeling of ships, and even the bursting of shells, of which most fell in 
the water, though some lodged on the rocks. The firing ceased, and 
from that instant Tripoli passed the night in a stillness as profound as 
that in which the victims of this explosion have lain from that fatal hour 
to this.” 

In the American squadron the opinion was prevalent, that Somers and 
his determined crew had blown themselves up to prevent capture; but 
subsequent light has rendered it more probable that it was accidental, or 


CHASE OF THE CONSTITUTION. 


161 

occasioned by a hot shot from the enemy. “Thus perished Richard 
Somers, 4 one of the bravest of the brave.’ Notwithstanding all our 
means of reasoning, and the greatest efforts of human ingenuity, there 
will remain a melancholy interest around the manner of his end, which, 
by the Almighty will, is forever vailed from human eyes, in a sad and 
solemn mystery.” 


THE CHASE OF THE UNITED STATES FRIGATE CONSTITUTION 
BY A BRITISH SQUADRON. 

The Constitution 44, Captain Hull, had gone into the Chesapeake, on 
her return from Europe, and shipping a new crew, on the twelfth of July, 
1812, she sailed from Annapolis, and stood to the northward. So rapidly 
was her equipment procured, that her first lieutenant joined her only a 
fortnight before she sailed, and a draft of a hundred men was received 
on the evening of the eleventh. Friday, July the seventeenth, the ship 
was out of sight of land, though at no great distance from the coast, with 
a light breeze from the N. E., and under easy canvas. At one, she 
sounded in 22 fathoms; and about an hour afterward, four sail were 
made in the northern board, heading to the westward. At three, the 
Constitution made sail, and tacked in 18^ fathoms. At four, she dis¬ 
covered a fifth sail to the northward and eastward, which had the appear¬ 
ance of a vessel of war. This ship subsequently proved to be the 
Guerriere 38, Captain Dacres. By this time, the other four sail were 
made out to be three ships and a brig; they bore N. N. W., and were all 
on the starboard tack, apparently in company. The wind now became 
very light, and the Constitution hauled up her main-sail. The ship in 
the eastern board, however, had so far altered her position by six, as to 
bear E. N. E., the wind having hitherto been fair for her to close. But 
at a quarter past six, the wind came out light at the southward, bringing 
the American ship to windward. The Constitution now wore round with 
her head to the eastward, set her light studding-sails and stay-sails, and 
at half past seven, beat to quarters, and cleared for action, with the 
intention of speaking the nearest vessel. 

The wind continued very light at the southward, and the two vessels 
were slowly closing until eight. At ten, the Constitution shortened sail, 
and immediately after she showed the private signal of the day. After 
keeping the lights aloft near an hour, and getting no answer from the 
Guerriere, the Constitution, at a quarter past eleven, lowered the signal, 
and made sail again, hauling aboard her starboard tacks. During the 
whole of the middle watch the wind was very light, from the southward 
and westward. Just as the morning watch was called, the Guerriere 
tacked, then wore entirely round, threw a rocket, and fired two guns. 
As the day opened, three sail were discovered on the starboard quarter 
of the Constitution, and three more astern. At five a. m., a fourth vessel 
was seen astern. 

This was the squadron of Commodore Broke, which had been gradually 
closing with the American frigate during the night, and was now just out 
of gun-shot. As the ships slowly varied their positions, when the mists 
were entirely cleared away, the Constitution had two frigates on her lee 
quarter, and a ship of the line, two frigates, a brig and a schooner astern. 
The names of the enemy’s ships, have already been given; but the brig 
was the Nautilus, and the schooner another prize. All the strangers had 
11 



CHASE OF THE CONSTITUTION. 


162 

English colors flying. It now fell quite calm, and the Constitution hoisted 
out her boats, and sent them ahead to tow, with a view to keep the ship 
out of the reach of the enemy’s shot. At the same time, she whipt up 
one of the gun-deck guns to the spar-deck, and run it out aft, as a stern- 
chaser, getting a long eighteen off the forecastle also for a similar purpose. 
Two more of the twenty-fours below were run out at the cabin windows, 
with the same object, though it was found necessary to cut away some 
of the wood-work of the stern frame, in order to make room. 

By six o’clock the wind, which continued very light and baffling, came 
out from the northward of west, when the ship’s head was got round to 
the southward, and all the light canvas that would draw was set. Soon 
after, the nearest frigate, the Shannon, opened with her bow guns, and 
continued firing for about ten minutes, but perceiving she could not reach 
the Constitution, she ceased. At half past six, Captain Hull sounded in 
26 fathoms, when finding that the enemy was likely to close, as he was 
enabled to put the boats of two ships on one, and was also favored by a 
little more air than the Constitution, all the spare rope that could be found, 
and which was fit for the purpose, was payed down into the cutters, bent 
on, and a kedge was run out near half a mile ahead, and let go. At a 
signal given, the crew clapped on, and walked away with the ship, over¬ 
running and tripping the kedge as she came up with the end of the line. 
While this was doing, fresh lines and another kedge was carried ahead, 
and, though out of sight of land, the frigate glided away from her pursuers, 
before they discovered the manner in which it was done. It was not long, 
however, before the enemy resorted to the same expedient. At half past 
seven, the Constitution had a little air, when she set her ensign, and fired 
a shot at the Shannon, the nearest ship astern. At eight, it fell calm 
again, and further recourse was had to the boats and the kedges, the 
enemy’s vessels having a light air, and drawing ahead, towing, sweeping, 
and hedging. By nine, the nearest frigate, the Shannon, on which the 
English had put most of their boats, was closing fast, and there was every 
prospect, notwithstanding the steadiness and activity of the Constitution’s 
people, that the frigate just mentioned would get near enough to cripple 
her, when her capture by the rest of the squadron would be inevitable. 
At this trying moment the best spirit prevailed in the ship. Everything 
was stoppered, and Captain Hull was not without hopes, even should he 
be forced into action, of throwing the Shannon astern by his fire, and of 
maintaining his distance from the other vessels. It was known that 
the enemy could not tow very near, as it would have been easy to sink 
his boats with the stern-guns of the Constitution, and not a man in the 
latter vessel showed a disposition to despondency. Officers and men 
relieved each other regularly at the duty, and while the former threw 
themselves down on deck to catch short naps, the people slept at their 
guns. 

This was one of the most critical moments of the chase. The Shannon 
was fast closing, as has been just stated, while the Guerriere was almost 
as near on the larboard quarter. An hour promised to bring the struggle 
to an issue, when suddenly, at nine minutes past nine, a light air from 
the southward struck the ship, bringing her to windward. The beautiful 
manner in which this advantage was improved, excited admiration even 
in the enemy. As the breeze was seen coming, the ship’s sails were 
trimmed, and as soon as she was under command, she was brought close 
up to the wind, on the larboard tack; the boats were all dropped in along 
side; those that belonged to the davits were run up, while the others were 


CHASE OF THE CONSTITUTION. 


163 

just lifted clear of the water, by purchases on the spare outboard spars,- 
where they were in readiness to be used at a moment’s notice. As the 
ship came by the wind, she brought the Guerriere nearly on her lee-beam, 
when that frigate opened a fire from her broadside. While the shot of 
this vessel were just falling short of them, the people of the Constitution 
were hoisting up their boats with as much steadiness as if the duty was 
performing in a friendly port. In about an hour, however, it fell nearly 
calm again, when Captain Hull ordered a quantity of the water started, 
to lighten the ship. More than two thousand gallons were pumped out, 
and the boats were sent ahead again to tow. The enemy now put nearly 
all his boats on the Shannon, the nearest ship astern; and a few hours 
of prodigious exertion followed, the people of the Constitution being 
compelled to supply the place of numbers by their activity and zeal. 
The ships were close by the wind, and everything that would draw was 
set, and the Shannon was slowly, but steadily, forging ahead. About 
noon of this day, there was a little relaxation from labor, owing to the 
occasional occurrence of cat’s-paws, by watching which closely, the ship 
was urged through the water. But at quarter past twelve, the boats were 
again sent ahead, and the toilsome work of towing and kedging was 
renewed. 

At one o’clock, a strange sail was discovered nearly to leeward. At 
this moment the four frigates of the enemy were about one point on the 
lee-quarter of the Constitution, at long gunshot, the Africa and the two 
prizes being on the lee-beam. As the wind was constantly baffling, any 
moment might have brought a change, and placed the enemy to windward. 
At seven minutes before two, the Belvidera, then the nearest ship, began 
to fire with her bow-guns, and the Constitution opened with her stern- 
chasers. On board the latter ship, however, it was soon found to be 
dangerous to use the main-deck guns, the transoms having so much rake, 
the window being so high, and the guns so short, that every explosion 
lifted the upper deck, and threatened to blow out the stern-frame. Per¬ 
ceiving, moreover, that his shot did little or no execution, Captain Hull 
ordered the firing to cease at half past two. 

For several hours, the enemy’s frigates were now within gunshot, 
sometimes towing and kedging, and at others endeavoring to close with 
the puffs of air that occasionally passed. At seven in the evening, the 
boats of the Constitution were again ahead, the ship steering S. W. £ W., 
with an air so light as to be almost imperceptible. At half past seven, 
she sounded in 24 fathoms. For hours the same toilsome duty was 
going on, until a little before eleven, when a light air from the southward 
struck the ship, and the sails for the first time in many weary hours were 
asleep. The boats instantly dropped along side, hooked on, and were 
all run up, with the exception of the first cutter. The topgallant studding- 
sails and stay-sails were set as soon as possible, and for about an hour, 
the people caught a little rest. 

But at midnight it fell nearly calm again, though neither the pursuers 
nor the pursued had recourse to the boats, probably from an unwillingness 
to disturb their crews. At two, a. m., it was observed on board the Con¬ 
stitution that the Guerriere had forged ahead, and was again off their 
lee-beam. At this time, the topgallant studding-sails were taken in. 

In this manner passed the night, and on the morning of the next day, 
it was found that three of the enemy’s frigates were within long gunshot 
on the lee-quarter, and the other at about the same distance on the lee- 
beam. The Africa and the prizes were much further to leeward. 


CHASE OF THE CONSTITUTION. 


164 

A little after daylight, the Guerriere, having drawn ahead sufficiently to 
be forward of the Constitution’s beam, tacked, when the latter ship did 
the same, in order to preserve her position to windward. An hour later 
the iEolus passed on the contrary tack, so near that it was thought by 
some who observed the movement, that she ought to have opened her 
fire; but, as that vessel was merely a twelve-pounder frigate, and she was 
still at a considerable distance, it is quite probable her commander acted 
judiciously. By this time, there was sufficient wind to induce Captain 
Hull to hoist in his first cutter. 

The scene, on the morning of this day, was very beautiful, and of great 
interest to the lovers of nautical exhibitions. The weather was mild and 
lovely, the sea smooth as a pond, and there was quite wind enough tn 
remove the necessity of any of the extraordinary means of getting ahead, 
that had been so freely used during the previous eight-and-forty hours. 
All the English vessels had got on the same tack with the Constitution 
again, and the five frigates were clouds of canvas, from their trucks to 
the water. Including the American ship, eleven sail were in sight, and 
shortly after a twelfth appeared to windward, that was soon ascertained 
to be an American merchantman. But the enemy were too intent on 
the Constitution to regard anything else, and though it would have been 
easy to capture the ships to leeward, no attention appears to have been 
paid to them. With a view, however, to deceive the ship to windward 
they hoisted American colors, when the Constitution set an English ensign, 
by way of warning the stranger to keep aloof. 

Until ten o’clock the Constitution was making every preparation for 
carrying sail hard should it become necessary, and she sounded in 25 
fathoms. At noon the wind fell again, though it was found that while 
the breeze lasted, she had gained on all the enemy’s ships; more, however 
on some, than on others. The nearest vessel was the Belvidera, which 
was exactly in the wake of the Constitution, distant about two and a half 
miles, bearing W. N. W. The nearest frigate to leeward, bore N. by 
W. ^ W. distant three or three and a half miles; the two other frigates 
were on the lee-quarter, distant about five miles, and the Africa was hull 
down to leeward, on the opposite tack. 

This was a vast improvement on the state of things that had existed 
the day previous, and it allowed the officers and men to catch a little rest, 
though no one left the decks. The latitude by observation this day, was 
38° 47' N., and the longitude by dead reckoning 73° 57' W. 

At meridian the wind began to blow a pleasant breeze, and the sound 
of the water rippling under the bows of the vessel was again heard. 
From this moment the noble old ship slowly drew ahead of all her pur¬ 
suers, the sails being watched and tended in the best manner that consum¬ 
mate seamanship could dictate, until four p.m. when the Belvidera was more 
than four miles astern, and the other vessels were thrown behind in the 
same proportion, though the wind had again got to be very light. 

In this manner both parties kept passing ahead and to windward, as 
fast as circumstances would allow, profiting by every change, and resorting 
to all the means of forcing vessels through the water, that are known to 
seamen. At a little before seven, however, there was every appearance 
of a heavy squall, accompanied by rain; when the Constitution prepared 
to meet it with the coolness and discretion she had displayed throughout 
the whole affair. The people were stationed, and everything was kept 
fast to the last moment, when, just before the squall struck the ship, the 
order was given to clew up and clew down. All the light canvas wag 


CHASE OF THE CONSTITUTION. 


165 


furled, a second reef was taken in the mizzen-topsail, and the ship was 
brought under short sail, in an incredibly little time. The English vessels, 
observing this, began to let go and haul down without waiting for the wind, 
and when they were shut in bj the rain, they were steering in different 
directions to avoid the force of the expected squall. The Constitution, 
on the other hand, no sooner got its weight, than she sheeted home and 
hoisted her fore and main-topgallant sails, and while the enemy most 
probably believed her to be borne down by. the pressure of the wind, 
steering free, she was flying away from them, on an easy bowline, at the 
rate of eleven knots. 

In a little less than an hour after the squall struck the ship, it had 
entirely passed to leeward, and a sight was again obtained of the enemy. 
The Belvidera, the nearest vessel, had altered her bearings in that short 
period two points more to leeward, and she was a long way astern. The 
next nearest vessel was still farther to leeward, and more distant, while 
the two remaining frigates were fairly hull down. The Africa was barely 
visible in the horizon! 

All apprehensions of the enemy now ceased, though sail was carried 
to increase the distance, and to preserve the weather-gage. At half past 
ten the wind backed further to the southward, when the Constitution, 
which had been steering free for some time, took in her lower studding- 
sails. At eleven the enemy fired two guns and the nearest ship could 
just be discovered. As the wind baffled, and continued light, the enemy 
still persevered in the chase, but at daylight the nearest vessel was hull 
down astern, and to leeward. Under the circumstances it was deemed 
prudent to use every exertion to lose sight of the English frigates; and 
the wind falling light, the Constitution's sails were wet down from the 
skysails to the courses. The good effects of this care were soon visible, 
as at six a.m., the topsails of the enemy’s nearest vessels were beginning 
to dip. At a quarter past 8, the English ships all hauled to the northward 
and eastward, fully satisfied, by a trial that had lasted nearly three days, 
and as many nights, under all the circumstances that can attend naval 
maneuvers, from reefed topsails to kedging, that they had no hope of 
overtaking their enemy. 

Thus terminated a chase, that has become historical in the American 
navy, for its length, closeness, and activity. On the part of the English, 
there were manifested much perseverance and seamanship, a ready imi¬ 
tation, and a strong desire to get along side of their enemy. But the 
glory of the affair was carried off by the officers and people of the Con¬ 
stitution. Throughout all the trying circumstances of this arduous struggle, 
this noble frigate, which had so lately been the subject of the sneers of 
the English critics, maintained the high character of a man-of-war. Even 
when pressed upon the hardest, nothing was hurried, confused, or slovenly, 
but the utmost steadiness, order, and discipline reigned in the ship. A 
cool, discreet, and gallant commander, was nobly sustained by his officers; 
and there cannot be a doubt that had the enemy succeeded in getting any 
one of their frigates fairly under the fire of the American ship, that she 
would have been very roughly treated. The escape itself, is not so much 
a matter of admiration, as the manner in which it was effected. A little 
water was pumped out, it is true; and perhaps this was necessary, in 
order to put a vessel fresh from port on a level, in light winds and calms, 
with ships that had been cruising some time; but not an anchor was cut 
away, not a boat stove, nor a gun lost. The steady and man-of-war like 
style in which the Constitution'took in all her boats, as occasions offered; 


STORY OF AN ENGLISH SAILOR BOY. 


166 

the order and rapidity with which she kedged, and the vigilant seamanship 
with which she was braced up, and eased off, extorted admiration among 
the more liberal of her pursuers. In this affair, the ship, no less than 
those who worked her, gained a high reputation, if not with the world 
generally, at least with those who, perhaps, as seldom err in their nautical 
criticisms as any people living. 


DESCRIPTION BY AN ENGLISH SAILOR BOY, OF THE BATTLE 
BETWEEN THE AMERICAN FRIGATE UNITED STATES 
AND THE BRITISH FRIGATE MACEDONIAN. 

Samuel Leech, an English sailor boy, who was on board of the British 
frigate Macedonian at the time of the capture of that vessel by the 
United States, has left the following vivid sketch of the battle, which, 
with his subsequent adventures in the American Naval Service here 
given, forms a few pages rarely equaled in interest by anything in the 
whole range of maritime narrative. 

Sunday (December twenty-fifth, 1812 ,) came, and it brought with it a 
stiff breeze. We usually'made a sort of holiday of this sacred day. 
After breakfast it was common to muster the entire crew on the spar-deck, 
dressed as the fancy of the captain might dictate; sometimes in blue 
jackets and white trowsers, or blue jackets and blue trowsers; at other 
times in blue jackets, scarlet vests, and blue or while trowsers; with our 
bright anchor-buttons glancing in the sun, and our black glossy hats orna¬ 
mented with black ribbons, and with the name of our ship painted on 
them. After muster we frequently had church service read by the captain; 
the rest of the day was devoted to idleness. But we were destined to 
spend the Sabbath just introduced to the reader in a very different 
manner. 

We had scarcely finished breakfast before the man at the mast-head 
shouted, “Sail, ho!” 

The captain rushed upon deck, exclaiming, “Mast-head there!” 

“Sir?” 

“Where away is the sail?” 

The precise answer to this question I do not recollect, but the captain 
proceeded to ask, 

“What does she look like?” 

“ A square-rigged vessel, sir,” was the reply of the lookout. 

After a few minutes, the captain shouted again, “Mast-head there!” 

“Sir?” 

“What does she look like?” 

“A large ship, sir, standing toward us!” 

By this time most of the crew were on deck, eagerly straining their eyes 
to obtain a glimpse of the approaching ship, and murmuring their opinions 
to each other on her probable character. 

Then came the voice of the captain, shouting, “ Keep silence fore and 
aft!” 

Silence being secured, he hailed the lookout, who, to his question of 
“ What does, she look like?” replied, “A large frigate, bearing down 
upon us, sir!” 

A whisper ran along the crew that the stranger ship was a Yankee 
frigate. The thought was confirmed by the command of “ All hands clear 



STORY OF AN ENGLISH SAILOR BOY. 


167 

the ship for action, ahoy!” The drum and fife beat to quarters, bulk¬ 
heads were knocked away, the guns were released from their confinement, 
the whole dread paraphernalia of battle was produced, and after the lapse 
of a few minutes of hurry and confusion, every man and boy was at his 
post, ready to do his best service for his country, except the band, who, 
claiming exemption from the affray, safely stowed themselves away in 
the cable-tier. We had only one sick man on the list, and he, at the 
cry of battle, hurried from his cot, feeble as he was, to take his post 
of danger. A few of the junior midshipmen were stationed below on 
the berth-deck, with orders, given in our hearing, to shoot any man who 
attempted to run from his quarters. 

As the approaching ship showed American colors, all doubt of her 
character was at an end. “ We must fight her,” was the conviction of 
every breast. Every possible arrangement that could insure success was 
accordingly made. The guns were shotted, the matches lighted; for 
although our guns were all furnished with first-rate locks, they were also 
provided with matches, attached by lanyards, in case the lock should miss 
fire. A lieutenant then passed through the ship, directing the marines 
and boarders —who were furnished with pikes, cutlasses, and pistols— 
how to proceed if it should be necessary to board the enemy. He was 
followed by the captain, who exhorted the men to fidelity and courage, 
urging upon their consideration the well-known motto of the brave Nelson, 
u England expects every man to do his duty.” In addition to all these 
preparations on deck, some men were stationed in the tops with small 
arms, whose duty it was was to attend to trimming the sails, and to use 
their muskets provided we came to close action. There were others, also, 
below, called sail-trimmers, to assist in working the ship should it be 
necessary to shift her position during the battle. 

My station was the fifth gun on the main-deck. It was my duty to 
supply my gun with powder, a boy being appointed to each gun in the 
ship, on the side we engaged, for this purpose. A woolen screen was 
placed before the entrance to the magazine, with a hole in it, through which 
the cartridges were passed to the boys; we received them there, and 
covering them with our jackets, hurried to our respective guns. These 
precautions are observed to prevent the powder taking fire before it 
reaches the gun. 

Thus we all stood, awaiting orders, in motionless suspense. At last we 
fired three guns from the larboard side of the main-deck; this was followed 
by the command, u Cease firing; you are throwing away your shot!” 

Then came the order to u wear ship,” and prepare to attack the enemy 
with our starboard guns. Soon after this I heard a firing from some other 
quarter, which I at first supposed to be a discharge from our quarter-deck 
guns, but it proved to be the roar of the enemy’s cannon. I 

A strange noise, such as I had never heard before, next arrested my 
attention; it sounded like the tearing of sails just over our heads. This 
I soon ascertained to be the wind of the enemy’s shot. The firing, after 
a few minutes’ cessation, recommenced. The roaring of cannon could 
now be heard from all parts of our trembling ship, and mingling as it did 
with that of our foes, it made a most hideous noise. By and by I heard 
the shot strike the sides of our ship; the whole scene grew indescribably 
confused and horrible; it was like some awfully tremendous thunder¬ 
storm, whose deafening roar is attended by incessant streaks of lightning, 
carrying death in every flash, and strewing the ground with the victims 
of its wrath; only in our case the scene was rendered more horrible than 


STORY OF AN ENGLISH SAILOR BOY. 


168 

that, by the presence of torrents of blood which dyed our decks. Though 
the recital may be painful, yet as it will reveal the horrors of war, and 
show at what a fearful price a victory is won or lost, I will present the 
reader with things as they met my eye during the progress of this dreadful 
fight. I was busily supplying my gun with powder, when I saw blood 
suddenly fly from the arm of a man stationed at our gun. I saw nothing 
strike him; the effect alone was visible; in an instant the third lieutenant 
tied his handkerchief round the wounded arm, and sent the poor fellow 
below to the surgeon. 

The cries of the wounded now rang through all parts of the ship. 
These were carried to the cockpit as fast as they fell, while those more 
fortunate men who were killed outright were immediately thrown overboard. 
As I was stationed but a short distance from the main-hatchway, I could 
catch a glance at all who were carried below. A glance was all I could 
indulge in, for the boys belonging to the guns next to mine were wounded 
in the early part of the action, and I had to spring with all my might to 
keep three or four guns supplied with cartridges. I saw two of these 
lads fall nearly together. One of them was struck in the leg by a largo 
shot; he had to suffer amputation above the wound. The other had a 
grape or canister shot sent through his ankle. A stout Yorkshireman 
lifted him in his arms and hurried with him to the cockpit. He had his 
foot cut off, and was thus made lame for life. Two of the boys stationed 
on the quarter-deck were killed. They were both Portuguese. A man 
who saw one of them killed, afterward told me that his powder caught 
fire and burnt the flesh almost off his face. In this pitiable situation the 
agonized boy lifted up both hands, as if imploring relief, when a passing 
shot instantly cut him in two. 

I was an eye-witness to a sight equally revolting. A man named 
Aldrich had one of his hands cut off by a shot, and almost at the same 
moment he received another shot, which tore open his bowels in a terrible 
manner. As he fell, two or three men caught him in their arms, and as 
he could not live, threw him overboard. 

One of the officers in my division also fell in my sight. He was a 
noble-hearted fellow, named Nan Kivell. A grape or canister shot struck 
him near the heart. He fell, and was carried below, where he shortly 
after died. 

Mr. Scott, our first-lieutenant, was also slightly wounded by a grummet, 
or small iron ring, probaly torn from a hammock clew by a shot. He went 
below, shouting to the men to fight on. Having had his wound dressed, 
he came up again, shouting to us at the top of his voice, and bidding us 
fight with all our might. 

The battle went on. Our men kept cheering with all their might; I 
cheered with them, though I confess I scarcely knew for what. Certainly 
there was nothing very inspiriting in the aspect of things where I was 
stationed. So terrible had been the work of destruction round us, that 
it was termed the slaughter-hoyse. Not only had we had several boys 
and men killed or wounded, but several of the guns were disabled. The 
one I belonged to had a piece of the muzzle knocked out; and when the 
ship rolled, it struck a beam of the upper deck with such force as to 
become jammed and fixed in that position. A twenty-four pound shot 
had also gone through the screen of the magazine, immediately over the 
orifice through which we passed our powder. The schoolmaster received 
a death wound. The brave boatswain, who came from the sick cot to 
the din of battle, was fastening a stopper on a back-stay which had been 


STORY OF AN ENGLISH SAILOR BOY. 


169 

shot away, when his head was smashed to pieces by a cannon-ball; another 
man, going to complete the unfinished task, was also struck down. One 
of our midshipmen likewise received a severe wound, and the wardroom 
steward was killed. A fellow named John, who, for some petty offense, 
had been sent on board as a punishment, was carried past me wounded. 

I distinctly heard the large blood-drops fall pat, pat, on the deck; his 
wounds were mortal. Even a poor goat, kept by the officers for her milk, 
did not escape the general carnage; her hind-legs were shot off, and poor 
Nan was thrown overboard. 

I have often been asked what were my feelings during this fight. I 
felt pretty much as I suppose every one does at such a time. That men 
are without thought when they stand amid the dying and the dead, is too 
absurd an idea to be entertained for a moment. We all appeared cheerful, 
but I know that many a serious thought ran through my mind; still, what 
could we do but keep up a semblance, at least of animation? To run 
from our quarters would have been certain death from the hands of our 
own officers; to give way to gloom, or to show fear, would do no good, 
and might brand us with the name of cowards, and insure certain defeat. 
Our only true philosophy, therefore, was to make the best of our situation, 
by fighting bravely and cheerfully. I thought a great deal, however, of 
the other world: every groan, every falling man, told me that the next 
instant I might be before the Judge of all the earth. 

While these thoughts secretly agitated my bosom, the din of battle 
continued. Grape and canister shot were pouring through our port-holes 
like leaden rain, carrying death in their train. The large shot came against 
the ship’s side like iron hail, shaking her to the very keel, or passing 
through her timbers, and scattering terrific splinters, which did a more 
appalling work than even their own death-giving blows. The reader may 
form an idea of the effect of grape and canister, when he is told that grape 
shot is formed by seven or eight balls confined to an iron and tied in 
a cloth. These balls are scattered by the explosion of the powder. 
Canister shot is made by filling a powder canister with balls, each as large 
as two or three musket balls; these also scatter with direful effect when 
discharged. What, then, with splinters, cannon-balls, grape and canistei 
poured incessantly upon us, the reader may be assured that the work of 
death went on in a manner which must have been satisfactory even to 
the King of Terrors himself. 

Suddenly the rattling of the iron hail ceased. We were ordered to 
cease firing. A profound silence ensued, broken only by the stifled 
groans of the brave sufferers below. It was soon ascertained that the 
enemy had shot ahead to repair damages; for she was not so disabled but 
she could sail without difficulty, while we were so cut up that we lay 
utterly helpless. Our head braces were shot away; the fore and main top¬ 
masts were gone; the mizzen-mast hung over the stern, having carried 
several men over in its fall: we were in the state of a complete wreck. 

A council was now held among the officers on the quarter-deck. Our 
condition was perilous in the extreme; victory or escape was alike hopeless. 
Our ship was disabled; many of our men were killed, and many more 
wounded. The enemy would without doubt bear down upon us in a few 
moments, and, as she could now choose her own position, would doubtless 
rake us fore and aft. Any further resistance was therefore folly ; so, in 
spite of the hot-brained lieutenant, who advised them not to strike, but 
to sink along side, it was determined to strike our colors. This was done 
by the hands of a brave fellow named Watson, whose saddened brow told 


STORY OF AN ENGLISH SAILOR BOY. 


170 

how severely it pained his lion heart, to do it. To me it was a pleasing 
sight, for I had seen fighting enough for one Sabbath; more than I wished 
to see again on a week-day. His Britannic Majesty’s frigate Macedonian 
was now the prize of the American frigate United States. 

I now went below to see how matters appeared there. The first object 
I met was a man bearing a limb, which had just been detached from some 
poor sufferer. Pursuing my way to the wardroom, I necessarily passed 
through the steerage, which was strewed with the wounded: it was a sad 
spectacle, made more appalling by the groans and cries which rent the 
air. Some were groaning, others were swearing most bitterly, a few were 
praying, while those last arrived were begging most piteously to have 
their wounds dressed next. The surgeon and his mate were smeared 
with blood from head to foot; they looked more like butchers than doctors. 
Having so many patients, they had once shifted their quarters from the 
cockpit to the steerage; they now removed to the wardroom ; and the long 
table, round which the officers had sat over many a merry feast, was soon 
covered with the bleeding forms of maimed and mutilated seamen. 

I now set to work to render all the aid in my power to the sufferers. 
Our carpenter, named Reed, had his leg cut off. I helped to carry him to 
the after wardroom ; but he soon breathed out his life there, and then I as¬ 
sisted in throwing his mangled remains overboard. We got out the cots 
as fast as possible, for most of the men were stretched out on the gory 
deck. One poor fellow, who lay with a broken thigh, begged me to give 
him water. I gave him some. He looked unutterable gratitude, drank, 
and died. It was with exceeding difficulty I moved through the steerage, 
it was so covered with mangled men, and so slippery with streams of 
blood. There was a poor boy there crying as if his heart would break. 
He had been servant to the boatswain whose head was dsShed to pieces. 
Poor boy! he felt that he had lost a friend. 1 tried to comfort him, by 
reminding him that he ought to be thankful for having escaped death 
himself. 

Here also I met one of my messmates, who showed the utmost joy at 
seeing me alive, for he said he had heard that I was killed. He was 
looking up his messmates, which he said was always done by sailors. 
We found two of our mess wounded. One was the Swede, Logholm, 
who fell overboard and was nearly lost, as formerly mentioned. We held 
him while the surgeon cut off his leg above the knee. The operation 
was most painful to behold, the surgeon using his knife and saw on human 
fiesh and bones as freely as the butcher at the shambles does on the 
carcass of a beast! Our other messmate suffered still more than the Swede; 
he was sadly mutilated about the legs and thighs with splinters. Such 
scenes of suffering as I saw in that wardroom I hope never to witness 
again. Could the civilized world behold them as they were, and as they 
often are, infinitely worse than on that occasion, it seems to me that they 
would forever put down the barbarous practices of war by universal 
consent. 

Most of our officers and men were taken on board the victor ship. I 
was left, with a few others, to take care of the wounded. My master, 
the sailing-master, was also among the officers who continued in the ship. 
Most of the men who remained were unfit for any service, having broken 
into the spirit-room and made themselves drunk; some of them broke 
into the purser’s room, and helped themselves to clothing; while others, 
by previous agreement, took possession of their dead messmates’ property 
For my own part, I was content to help myself to a little of the officers 


STORY OF AN ENGLISH SAILOR BOY. 


171 

provisions, which did me more good than could be obtained from rum. 
What was worse than all, however, was the folly of the sailors in giving 
spirits to their wounded messmates, since it only served to aggravate 
their distress. 

The great number of the wounded kept our surgeon and his mate 
busily employed until late at night, and it was a long time before they 
had much leisure. I remember passing round the ship the day after the 
battle. Coming to a hammock, I found some one in it, apparently asleep. 
I spoke ; he made no answer: I looked into the hammock ; he was dead. 
My messmates coming up, we threw the corpse overboard;—that was no 
time for useless ceremony. The man had probably crawled into his 
hammock the day before, and, not being perceived in the general distress, 
bled to death! Oh war, who can reveal thy miseries! 

When the crew of the United States first boarded our frigate, to take 
possession of her as their prize, our men, heated with the fury of the 
battle, exasperated with the sight of their dead and wounded shipmates, 
and rendered furious by the rum they had obtained from the spirit-room, 
felt and exhibited some disposition to fight their captors. But after the 
confusion had subsided, and part of our men were snugly stowed away 
in the American ship, and the remainder found themselves kindly used 
in their own, the utmost good feeling began to prevail. We set to work 
to cleanse the ship, using hot vinegar to take out the scent of the blood 
that had dyed the white of our planks with crimson. We also aided in 
fitting our disabled frigate for her voyage. This being accomplished, 
both ships sailed in company toward the American coast. 

I soon felt myself perfectly at home with the American seamen; so 
much so, that I chose to mess with them. My shipmates also participated 
in similar feelings in both ships. All idea that we had been trying to shoot 
each other so shortly before seemed forgotten. We ate together, drank 
together, joked, sung, laughed, told yarns; in short, a perfect union of 
ideas, feelings, and purposes, seemed to exist among all hands. A cor¬ 
responding state of unanimity existed, I was told, among the officers. 

Our voyage was one of considerable excitement. The seas swarmed 
with British cruisers, and it was extremely doubtful whether the United 
States would elude the grasp, and reach the protection of an American 
port with her prize. I hoped most sincerely to avoid them, as did most 
of my old shipmates: in this we agreed with our captors, who wisely 
desired to dispose of one conquest before they attempted another. Our 
former officers, of course, were anxious for the sight of a British flag, but 
we saw none; and after a prosperous voyage from the scene of conflict, 
we heard the welcome cry of “Land, ho!” The United States entered 
the port of New London; but, owing to a sudden shift of the wind, 
the Macedonian had to lay off and on for several hours. Had an 
English cruiser found us in this situation, we should have been easily 
recovered; and as it was extremely probable we should fall in with one, 
[ felt quite uneasy, until, after several hours, we made out to run into 
the pretty harbor of Newport. We fired a salute as we came to an anchor, 
which was promptly returned by the people on shore. 

While we lay here a few days, several of our men contrived to run away. 
I would have done so too, but for the vigilance of the prize officers, who 
were ordered to keep us that we might be exchanged for those Americans 
who had fallen into British hands. My desire for freedom at length 
prevailed over prudence, and 1 made my escape, glad to be rid of the 
tyranny to which I had been so long exposed. But this step, which, on 


STORY OF AN ENGLISH SAILOR BOY. 


172 

reflection, I do not commend, brought another evil. I was destitute of 
any means of support, and after numerous ineffectual efforts to get em¬ 
ployment on land, I again took to a seafaring life—this time, however, 
entering myself on board a United States brig-of-war, the Siren, carrying 
sixteen guns. I was then in the seventeenth year of my life. I was recom¬ 
mended by acquaintances to ship myself under a false name; but, in 
! defiance of my fears, I entered under my own proper name of Samuel 
[ Leech. 

My first impressions of the American service were vepy favorable. 
The treatment in the Siren was more lenient than in the Macedonian. 
The captain and officers were kind ; while there was a total exemption 
from that petty tyranny exercised by the upstart midshipmen in the British 
service. As a necessary effect, our crew was as comfortable and happy 
as men ever are in a man-of-war 

Our brig had before this taken in her guns, consisting of two long 
nine-pounders, twelve twenty-four pound carronades, and two forty-two- 
pounders. Our crew was composed of about one hundred and twenty-five 
smart active men. We were all supplied with stout leathern caps, 
something like those used by firemen. These were crossed by two strips 
of iron, covered with bear-skin, and were designed to defend the head, 
in boarding the enemy’s ship, from the stroke of the cutlass. Strips of 
bear-skin were likewise used to fasten them on, serving the purpose of 
false whiskers, and causing us look as fierce as hungry wolves. We were 
also frequently exercised in the various evolutions of a sea-fight; first using 
our cannon, then seizing our cutlasses,,and boarding-pikes, and cutting to 
the right and left, as if in the act of boarding an enemy’s ship. Thus we 
spent our time from early in the fall until after Christmas, when we 
received orders to hold ourselves in readiness for sea. 

As we lay waiting for our final orders, a report reached us that a large 
English brig-of-war, called the Nimrod, lay in a cove somewhere near 
Boston bay. Upon this information, our officers planned a night expedi¬ 
tion for the purpose of effecting her capture. Our intended mode of 
attack was to run close along side, pour a broadside upon her, and then, 
without further ceremony, board her, cutlass in hand. So we took in our 
powder, ground up our cutlasses, and toward night got under weigh. A 
change in the wind, however, defeated our designs, and we put into Salem 
harbor, with no other result than the freezing of a man’s fingers, which 
happened while we were furling our sails. Thus ended our first warlike 
expedition in the Siren. 

Shortly after this affair we received orders to start on a cruise to the 
coast of Africa, and, in company with the Grand Turk, a privateer, set 
sail from Salem. Passing the fort, we received the usual hail from the 
sentry of, “ Brig, ahoy! where are you bound to?” 

To this salutation the first-lieutenant jocosely answered, u There and 
back again, on a man-of-war’s cruise.” Such a reply would not have 
satisfied a British soldier; but we shot past the fort unmolested. After 
two days, we parted company with the Grand Turk, and, by the aid of a 
fair wind, soon found ourselves in the Gulf stream; where, instead of 
fearing frozen fingers, we could go barefooted and feel quite comfortable. 

We now kept a sharp look-out at the mast-head, but met with nothing 
until we reached the Canary Islands, near which we saw a boat-load of 
Portuguese, who, coming along side, talked in their native tongue with 
great noise and earnestness, but were no more intelligible to us than so 
many blackbirds. 



STORY OF AN ENGLISH SAILOR BOY. 


173 


While off the African coast, our captain died. His wasted body was 
placed in a coffin, with shot to sink it. After the service had been read, 
the plank on which the coffin rested was elevated, and it slipped into the 
great deep. The yards were braced round, and we were under weigh 
again, when, to our surprise and grief, we saw the coffin floating on the 
waves. The reason was, the carpenter had bored holes in the top and 
bottom: he should have made them only in the top. 

After the funeral, the crew were called aft, and the first-lieutenant, 
Mr. Nicholson, told us that it should be left to our decision whether he 
should assume the command and continue the cruise, or return home. 
We gave him three hearty cheers, in token of our wish to continue the 
cruise. He was a noble minded man, very kind and civil to his crew, and 
the opposite in every respect to the haughty lordly captain with whom I 
first sailed in the Macedonian. Seeing me one day with rather a poor 
hat on, he called me aft and presented me with one of his own, but 
little worn. “ Good luck to him,” said 1, in a sailor phrase, as I returned 
to my messmates; “ he has a soul to be saved.” We also lost two of our 
crew, who fell victims to the heat of the climate. 

One morning the cry of “Sail, ho!” directed our attention to a strange 
sail, which had hove to, with her courses hauled up. At first we took 
her for a British man-of-war brig. The hands were summoned to quarters, 
and the ship got ready for action. A nearer approach, however, convinced 
us that the supposed enemy was no other than our old friend the Grand 
Turk. She did not appear to know us; for no sooner did she see that 
our craft was a brig-of-war, than, supposing us to belong to John Bull, she 
crowded all her canvas, and made the best of her way off. Knowing 
what she was, we permitted her to escape without further alarm. 

The first land we made was Cape Mount. The natives came off to a 
considerable distance in their canoes, clothed in nothing but a piece of 
cloth fastened round the waist, and extending downward to the feet. As 
we approached the shore, we saw several fires burning; this, we were 
told, in the broken English spoken by our sable visitors, was the signal for 
trade. We bought a quantity of oranges, limes, cocoanuts, tamarinds, 
plantains, yams, and bananas. We likewise took in a quantity of cassada, 
a species of ground root, of which we made tolerable pudding and bread; 
also a few hogs and some water. 

We lay here several days, looking out for any English vessels that might 
come thither for purposes of trade. 

Meanwhile we began to experience the inconvenience of a hot climate. 
Our men were all covered with blotches or boils, probably occasioned by 
so sudden a transition from extreme cold to extreme heat. What was 
worse still, we were in want of a plentiful supply of water. In conse¬ 
quence of this, we were placed on an allowance of two quarts per diem 
to each man, which occasioned us much suffering; for after preparing 
our puddings, bread, and grog, we had but little left to assuage our 
burning thirst. Some, in their distress, drank large quantities of sea water, 
which only increased their thirst, and made them sick; others sought 
relief in chewing lead, tea leaves, or anything which would create moisture. 
Never did we feel more delighted than when our boat’s crew announced 
the discovery of a pool of fine clear water. 

While cruising along the coast, we one night perceived a large ship 
lying at anchor near the shore. We could not decide whether she was 
a large merchantman or a man-of-war, so we approached her with the 
utmost caution. Our doubts were soon removed, for she suddenly loosed 


174 STORY OF AN ENGLISH SAILOR BOY. 

all her sails, and made chase after us. By the help of their glasses, our 
officers ascertained her to be an English frigate. Of course it was folly 
to engage her, so we made all the sail we could carry, beat to quarters, 
lighted our matches, and lay down at our guns, expecting to be prisoners 
of war before morning. During the night we hung out false lights, and 
altered our course: this baffled our pursuer: in the morning she was not 
to be seen. 

The next sail we made was not so formidable. She was an English 
vessel at anchor in the Senegal river. We approached her, and hailed. 
Her officer returned an insolent reply, which so exasperated our captain, 
that he passed the word to fire into her, but recalled it almost immediately. 
The countermand was too late; for, in a moment, everything being ready 
for action, we poured a whole broadside into our unfortunate foe. The 
current carried us away from the stranger. We attempted to beat up 
again; but our guns had roused the garrison in a fort which commanded 
the river; and they began to blaze away at us in so expressive a manner, 
that we found it prudent to get a little beyond the reach of their shot, and 
patiently wait for daylight. 

The next morning we saw our enemy hauled close in shore, under the 
protection of the fort, and filled with soldiers. At first it was resolved to 
man the boats and cut her out; but this, after weighing the subject 
maturely, was pronounced to be too hazardous an experiment, and, not¬ 
withstanding our men begged to make the attempt, it was wisely aban¬ 
doned. How many were killed by our hasty broadside we never learned, 
but doybtless several poor fellows were hurried to a watery and un¬ 
expected grave, affording another illustration of the beauty of war. This 
affair our men humorously styled “ the battle of Senegal.” 

After visiting Cape Three Points, we shaped our course for St. Thomas. 
On our way we lost a prize through a display of Yankee cunning in her 
commander. We had hoisted English colors; the officer in command 
of the stranger was pretty well versed in the secrets of false colors, and 
in return he ran up the American flag. The bait took: supposing her 
to be American, we showed the stars and stripes. This was ail the 
merchantman desired. It told him what we were, and he made all pos¬ 
sible sail for St. Thomas. We followed, crowding every stitch of canvas 
our brig could carry; we also got out our sweeps, and swept her along; 
but in vain. The merchantman was the better sailer, and succeeded in 
reaching St. Thomas, which,being a neutral port,secured her safety. Her 
name was the Jane, of Liverpool. The next morning another Liverpool 
merchantman got into the harbor unseen by our lookout, until she was 
under the protection of the laws of neutrality. 

Our next business was to watch the mouth of the harbor, in the hope 
of catching them as they left port. But they were too cautious to run 
into danger, especially as they were expecting a convoy for their protec¬ 
tion, which might make us glad to trust more to our canvas than to our 
cannon. 

Shortly after this occurrence we made another sail standing in toward 
St. Thomas. Hoisting English colors, our officers also donning the 
British uniform, we soon came near enough to hail her; for not doubting 
that we were a British brig, the merchantman made no effort to escape 
us. Our captain hailed her: 

“Ship, ahoy!” 

“ Halloo!” 

“What ship is that?” 


STORY OF AN ENGLISH SAILOR BOY. 


175 


“ The ship Barton.” 

“ Where do you belong?” 

“To Liverpool.” 

“ What is your cargo? ” 

“ Red-wood, palm oil, and ivory.” 

“ Where are you bound to?” 

u To St. Thomas.” 

Just at that moment our English flag was hauled down, and to the 
inexpressible annoyance of the officers of the Barton, the stars and stripes 
supplied its place. 

u Haul down your colors!” continued Captain Nicholson. 

The old captain, who up to this moment had been enjoying a comfortable 
nap in his very comfortable cabin, now came upon deck in his shirt sleeves, 
rubbing his eyes, and looking so exquisitely ridiculous,that it was scarcely 
possible to avoid laughing. So surprised was he at the unexpected 
termination of his dreams, that he could not command skill enough to 
strike his colors, which was accordingly done by the mate. 

After taking out as much of her cargo as we desired, we proceeded to 
set her on fire. It was an imposing sight to behold the wild antics of the 
flames, leaping from rope to rope, and from spar to spar, until she looked 
like a fiery cloud resting on the dark surface of the water. Presently her 
spars began to fall, her masts went by the board, her loaded guns went 
off, the hull was burned to the water’s edge, and what a few hours before 
was a fine trim ship, looking like a. winged creature of the deep, lay a 
shapeless charred mass, whose blackened outline, shadowed in the clear 
still waves, looked like the grim spirit of war lurking for its prey. 

This wanton destruction of property was in accordance with our in¬ 
structions, “ to sink, burn, and destroy ” whatever we took from the enemy. 
Such is the war-spirit! Sink, burn, and destroy! how it sounds! Yet 
such are the instructions given by Christian nations to their agents in time 
of war. What Christian will not pray for the destruction of such a spirit? 

The crew of the Barton we carried into St. Thomas, and placed them 
on board the Jane, excepting a Portuguese and two colored men, who 
shipped among our crew. We also took with us a fine black spaniel dog, 
whom the men called by the name of Paddy. This done, we proceeded 
to watch for fresh victims on which to wreak the vengeance of the war 
spirit. 

The next sail we met was an English brig called the Advenlure, which 
had a whole menagerie of monkeys on board. We captured and burned 
her just as we did the Barton. Her crew was also disposed of in the 
same manner. One of them, an African prince, who had acquired a 
tolerable education in England, and who was remarkably polite and 
sensible, shipped in the Siren. His name was Samuel Quaqua. 

We now remained at St. Thomas several days, carrying on a petty trade 
with the natives. Our men bought all kinds of fruit, gold-dust, and 
birds. For these things we gave them articles of clothing, tobacco, knives, 
etc. For an old vest I obtained a large basketful of oranges; for a handful 
of tobacco five large cocoanuts—a profitable exchange on my side, since, 
although I drew my tobacco of the purser, I fortunately never acquired 
the habit of using it; a loss I never regretted. My cocoanuts were far 
more gratifying and valuable when we got to sea, parched v^ith thirst, 
and suffering for water, than all the tobacco in the ship. 

From St. Thomas we proceeded to Angola, where we staid long 
enough to clean, paint, and refit our brig from stem to stern. This was 


STORY OF AN ENGLISH SAILOR BOY. 


176 

the last port we intended to touch at on the coast of Africa. Our next 
anchorage was to be in Boston harbor—at least so we purposed; but the 
events of war frustrated our intention. 

To accomplish our object, we had to run the gauntlet through the host 
of English cruisers that hovered about like birds of prey along both sides 
of the Atlantic coast. This enterprise appeared so impossible to my 
mind while we lay at Angola, and the fear of being retaken and hung 
operated so strongly on my imagination, that more than once I determined 
to run away and find a refuge among the Africans; but my better judgment 
prevailed, and I continued at my post. 

Still, I used every possible precaution to escape detection in case of 
of our capture. In accordance with the custom of our navy at that period, I 
let my hair grow long behind. To change my looks more effectually, 
instead of tying mine in a cue as the others did, I let it hang in ringlets all 
round my face and neck. This, together with the effect of time, caused 
me to appear quite a different lad from what I was when a boy on board 
the Macedonian. I also adopted that peculiarity of dress practiced by 
American men-of-war’s men, which consisted in wearing my shirt open 
at the neck, with the corners thrown back. On these corners a device 
was wrought, consisting of the stars of the American flag with the British 
flag underneath. By these means I hoped to pass for a genuine Yankee, 
without suspicion, in case we should fall into English hands. 

Having finished our preparations, we left Angola for Boston. We 
reached the island of Ascension in safety, where was a post-office of a 
truly patriarchal character. A box is nailed to a post near the shore. 
Ships that pass send to the box, and deposit or take out letters as the case 
may be. This is probably the cheapest general post-office establishment 
in the world. 

We had scarcely left this island before the cry of “ Sail, ho!” arrested 
every ear. Supposing her to be a large merchantman, we made toward 
her; but a nearer approach made it doubtful whether she was an Indiaman 
or a man-of-war. The captain judged her to be the latter, and tacked 
ship immediately. He was unwilling to place himself in the situation of 
an American privateer, who, mistaking a seventy-four for a merchantman, 
ran his ship close along side, and boldly summoned her to haul down her 
colors. The captain of the other ship cooly replied, “ I am not in the 
habit of striking my colors.” At the same moment the ports of his ship 
were opened, and disclosed her long ranges of guns yawning over the 
decks of the privateer. Perceiving his mistake, the privateer, with admi¬ 
rable tact and good humor, said, “ Well, if you wont, I will;” and pulling 
down his bunting, surrendered to his more powerful foe. To avoid such 
a mistake as this, our captain made all sail to escape the coming stranger, 
which was now bearing down upon us under a heavy pressure of canvas, 
revealing, as she gained upon our little brig, that she bore the formidable 
character of a seventy-four gun ship under English colors. 

Of course fighting was out of the question. It would be like the assault 
of a dog on an elephant, or a dolphin on a whale. We therefore crowded 
all possible sail, threw our guns, cables, anchors, hatches, etc., overboard, 
to increase her speed. But it soon became apparent that we could not 
escape. The wind blew quite fresh, which gave our opponent the ad¬ 
vantage : she gained on us very fast. We shifted our course, in hopes 
to baffle her until night, when we felt pretty sure of getting out of her 
way. It was of no use; she still gained; until we saw ourselves almost 
within gunshot of our opponent. 


STORY OF AN ENGLISH SAILOR BOY. 


177 

In this extremity the captain ordered the quarter-master, George Watson, 
to throw the private signals overboard. This was a hard task for the 
bold-hearted fellow. As he pitched them into the sea, he said, “ Good- 
by, brother Yankeean expression which, in spite of their mortifying 
situation, forced a smile from the lips of the officers. 

The sound of a gun now came booming through the air. It was a 
signal for us to heave to, or to look out for consequences. What might 
have been, we learned afterward, for a division of the crew of the seventy- 
four had orders to sink us if we made the least show of resistance. 
Finding it useless to prolong the chase, our commander reluctantly ordered 
the flag to be struck. We then hove to, and our foe came rolling down 
upon us, looking like a huge avalanche rushing down the mountain side 
to crush some poor peasant’s dwelling. Her officers stood on her quarter¬ 
deck, glancing unutterable pride, while her captain shouted, “What brig 
is that?” 

“ The United States brig Siren,” replied Captain Nicholson. 

“This is his Britannic majesty’s ship Medway!” he answered. “I 
claim you as my lawful prize.” 

Boats were then lowered, the little brig taken from us, and our crew 
transferred to the Medway, stowed away in the cable tier, and put in 
messes of twelve, with an allowance of only eight men’s rations to a mess— 
a regulation which caused us considerable suffering from hunger. The 
sight of the marines on board the Medway made me tremble, for my 
fancy pointed out several of them as having formerly belonged to the 
Macedonian. I really feared I was destined speedily to swing at the 
yard-arm: it was, however, a groundless alarm. 

This event happened July 12, 1814. Only eight days before, we 
had celebrated the independence of the United States. Now, we had a 
fair prospect of a rigorous imprisonment. Such are the changes which 
constantly occur under the rule of the war-spirit. 

The day subsequent to our capture we were marched to the quarter¬ 
deck with our clothes-bags, where we underwent a strict search. We 
were ordered to remove our outside garments for this purpose. They 
expected to find us in possession of large quantities of gold-dust. What 
little our crew had purchased was taken from them, with a spirit of 
rapacity altogether beneath the dignity of a naval commander. 

Our short allowance was a source of much discomfort in this our prison- 
ship. But in the true spirit of sailors, we made even this the subject of 
coarse jests and pleasant remark. Enduring this evil, we proceeded on 
our course. When the Medway arrived at Simon’s Town, about twenty- 
one miles from the Cape of Good Hope, we met the Denmark, seventy- 
four, on her way to England with the prisoners from Cape Town. The 
captain had hitherto intended to land us at the latter place, but the pre¬ 
sence of the Denmark led him to change his purpose, and land us at 
Simon’s Town. 

The journey from this place to the Cape was one of great suffering to 
our crew. We were received on the beach by a file of Irish soldiers. 
Under their escort we proceeded seven miles, through heaps of burning 
sand, seeing nothing worthy of notice on the way but a number of men 
busily engaged in cutting up dead whales on the sea-shore. 

After resting a short time, we recommenced our march, guarded by a 
new detachment of soldiers. Unused to walking as we were, we began 
to grow excessively fatigued; and after wading a stream of considerable 
depth, we were so overcome that it seemed impossible to proceed any 
12 


STORY OF AN ENGLISH SAILOR BOY. 


178 

further. We lay down, discouraged and wretched, on the sand. The 
guard brought us some bread, and gave half a pint of wine to each man. 
This revived us somewhat. We were now placed under a guard of 
dragoons. They were very kind, and urged us to attempt the remaining 
seven miles. To relieve us, they carried our clothes-bags on their horses; 
and overtaking some Dutch farmers going to the Cape with broom-stuff 
and brush, the officer of the dragoons made them carry the most weary 
among us in their wagons. It is not common for men to desire the inside 
of a prison, but I can assure my readers we did most heartily wish our¬ 
selves there, on that tedious journey. At last, about nine o’clock r. m., 
we arrived at Cape Town, having left one of our number at Wineburg, 
through exhaustion, who joined us the next day. Stiff, sore, and weary, 
we hastily threw ourselves on the hard boards of our prison, where, 
without needing to be soothed or rocked, we slept profoundly until the 
next morning, when we took a survey of our new quarters. We found 
ourselves placed in a large yard surrounded by high walls, and strongly 
guarded by soldiers. Within this inclosure there was a building or shed 
composed of three rooms, neither of which had any floor. Round the 
sidel stood three benches or stages, one above the other, to serve for 
berths. On these we spread our hammocks and bed-clothes, making 
them tolerably comfortable places to sleep in. A few of the men preferred 
to sling their hammocks as they did at sea. Here, also, we used to eat, 
unless, as was our frequent practice, we did so in the open air. 

We remained in prison at the Cape till carried away in the ship Cum¬ 
berland to England. Stopping by the way at St. Helena, we were re¬ 
moved to the Grampus, a transfer which greatly alarmed me, since the 
more men who saw me, the greater of course was my chance of detection. 
Luckily, no one knew me, and I arrived with my companions in safety at 
Plymouth. I was equally fortunate here, and remained undiscovered 
till I was transferred with others to a vessel which was to take us in 
exchange 1o America. I pass over the circumstances of the voyage, and 
only mention that we were all landed in due time at New York. 

My resolution had been to quit the sea and settle down on land, but 
on returning to New York all such fancies vanished, as they had done 
beford. I spent my hard-won earnings foolishly like others, and, like 
them, when reduced to straits, again sought employment as a sailor. On 
this occasion I shipped on board the Boxer, commanded by Captain Porter, 
a man, as it proved, of stern disposition. The Boxer was now ready 
for a cruise, and I prepared to do my duty on board of that vessel as an 
ordinary seaman. 

Formerly, I had been entered only as a boy; but now, as a rated sea¬ 
man, I had a station assigned me in the foretop, instead of being a servant 
to any of the officers. I was also appointed to be one of the crew of the 
captain’s gig. This made my lot one of more fatigue and exposure than 
in any former voyage; a proof of which I very soon experienced. It 
being now late in the fall, the weather became very cold. One afternoon, 
the pennant having got foul of the royal mast, an officer ordered me to 
go up and clear it. I had no mittens on; it took me some time to per¬ 
form my task; and before I came down, one of my fingers was frozen. 
Thus it is, however, with the poor tar; and he thinks himself happy to 
escape with injuries so slight as this. We shortly received sailing orders, 
and were soon under weigh, bound to the Balize in the Gulf of Mexico. 
Here we cruised about sometime, visiting New Orleans and other places, 
and keeping an outlook for pirates, with which these seas were then 


STORY OF AN ENGLISH SAILOR BOY. 


179 

unhappily infested. This was a duty requiring great vigilance, and we were 
kept constantly at our posts. The most irksome duty of a sailor is to keep 
watch at night in the tops. Often have I stood for hours on the royal 
yard, or topgallant yard, without a man to converse with. Here, overcome 
with fatigue and want of sleep, I have fallen into a dreamy dozing state, 
from which I was roused by a lee lurch of the ship. Starting up, I 
have shuddered at the danger I had so narrowly escaped. But notwith¬ 
standing this sudden fright, a few minutes had scarcely elapsed before 
1 would be nodding again. This, of course, was a highly punishable 
offense. 

When the weather was rough, we were indulged with permission to 
stand on the foretopsail yard, or on the topgallant cross-trees; and if the 
ship rolled heavily, we lashed ourselves to the mast for safety. I can 
assure my readers there is nothing desirable in this part of a sailor’s 
duty. In whatever the pleasure of a life at sea consists, it is not in 
keeping a look-out from the mast-head atnight. But the most disagreeable 
of all is, to be compelled to stand on these crazy elevations when half dead 
with sea-sickness. Some suppose that sailors are never sea-sick after the 
first time they go to sea. This is a mistake; it is very much with them as 
with landsmen in respect to being sick in a coach. Those who are of 
bilious temperament are always affected, more or less, when they ride in 
a coach or sleigh; while others are never sick on these occasions. So 
with seamen; some are never sea-sick, others are sick only when going 
out of port, while some are so in every gale of wind. It is almost need¬ 
less to say that, for sailors, no allowance is made for sea-sickness; they 
must in all cases remain at their posts until it is time to be relieved. 

Our cruise terminated after a few skirmishes, and we returned to New 
York, where I left the service, as I trusted, forever. As it occurred, my 
services as a seaman in a war-vessel would not long have been required. 
The peace between England and France in 1814, by opening the con¬ 
tinent to American commerce, hitherto excluded by British policy naturally 
removed one of the grounds of quarrel, and opened the way for peace with 
the United States. On the twenty-fourth of December, 1814, a treaty 
of peace, accordingly, was effected at Ghent, which left, however, the 
question of right of search and other matters on the ground on which 
they had previously stood. The Americans, as is well known, were most 
successful in their naval warfare; but, after all, that was a trifling com¬ 
pensation for ruined commerce, and for being brought to the very verge 
of national dismemberment. The losses of the British never made any 
distinct impression on the nation, otherwise than teaching a tolerably 
sound lesson in discretion, and leading to many important improvements 
in naval affairs. I sincerely trust that both nations, united by a thousand 
inextricable ties, and profiting by experience, will, in all time coming, 
avoid every description of warlike collision, and exist in the happiest 
terms of amity and peace. 

In taking leave of the sea, it may be expected that I should say a few 
words respecting the life of a sailor As I have already mentioned, the 
profession of a sailor has its hardships, but these were much greater at 
the time of my service than they are now, after a lapse of twenty years. 
The duties of the men are now exactly regulated, and their comforts are 
cared for in many ways. On board of each vessel, in the British navy, 
there are now means for instruction, a library, and the savings of the men 
are carefully secured for them, or transmitted to their wives or friends. 
On shore, also, there are at various ports, establishments called “ Sailors’' 


180 


STORY OF AN ENGLISH SAILOR BOY. 


Homes,” where discharged seamen may reside at a moderate expense 
till engaged in a new vessel. At sea, as on land, steadiness, temperance, 
good temper, forbearance, and other good qualities, are sure to command 
respect, notwithstanding the severities of discipline. It is likewise most 
advantageous for a man to possess a good education ; for the more he 
can make himself useful, and be depended on, the greater is his chance 
of promotion. A properly bred sailor should, at the very least, be able 
to reef and steer —that is, adapt the sails to the wind whichever way it 
blows, and govern the vessel by the helm and compass. But beside these 
comparatively simple duties, he should likewise be able to throw and 
calculate by the log, to work a reckoning, take an observation, find the 
longitude, and keep a log-book, in which all necessary particulars of the 
voyage are daily inscribed. The log is a contrivance for ascertaining the 
rate of speed at which a vessel goes. It consists of a long cord, having an 
oblong and loaded piece of wood attached to one end. This wood, when 
heaved overboard, remains stationary in the water, and consequently, as 
the vessel advances, the line must be let out from a reel held in the hand. 
The line is marked by knots and half knots, representing miles and half 
miles, and the number of these run off indicates the number of miles which 
the vessel is going at per hour. Every common seaman can cast the log, 
and calculate the speed of the vessel from it; but few can do any more, 
because they are contented to remain in ignorance, and inclined to spend 
their leisure time in trifling amusements rather than in study. Of course 
such persons cannot expect to rise in their profession. 

Having thrown myself adrift, with but slender resources, and far distant 
from my friends, I experienced the fate of many a disbanded and pen¬ 
niless tar. What hand to turn to for the means of subsistence I knew not. 
Determined at any rate to make an effort, I went about to different parts 
of the country seeking employment. I was not successful; and at length 
my money was all gone, and my shoes more than half worn out. When 
reduced to this sad extremity, and on the brink of despair, I was so for¬ 
tunate as to discover an old shipmate; and through his kind influence, 
his brother-in-law employed me to work in his cloth-dressing establishment. 
As I was ignorant of the business, and was not really needed, my board 
was to be my only compensation. I lived here happily for some time, 
and then got employment of a more lucrative kind in another establish¬ 
ment, where I settled, and have since remained, thankful to have attained 
a haven of rest after the turmoils and dangers of a sea-life. 


THE EXTRAORDINARY SUFFERINGS 


OF 


DONALD CAMPBELL, 

WHO, BEING SHIPWRECKED FELL INTO THE HANDS OF 

THE CRUEL HYDER ALI. 


It was the eighteenth day of May, 1782, when we sailed from Goa, 
in Hindoostan, in a Portuguese vessel, bound for Madras. The hemi¬ 
sphere had been, for some days, overcast with clouds: some light showers 
of rain had fallen, and it did not tend to raise my spirits, or free me from 
ominous apprehensions, to hear that those circumstances indicated an 
approaching gale of wind. I observed, moreover, that the vessel was much 
too deep in the water, being greatly overloaded—that she was, in many 
respects, defective, and, as the seamen say, ill-found, and, in short, very 
unfit to encounter a gale of wind of any violence. I scorned, however, 
to yield to those united impressions, and determined to proceed. 

On the nineteenth, the sky was obscured by immense fleeces of clouds, 
surcharged with inflammable matter; and in the evening the rain fell in 
torrents, the firmament darkened apace, sudden night came on, and the 
horrors of extreme darkness were rendered still more horrible by the 
peals of thunder which rent the air, and the frequent flashes of lightning, 
which served only to show us the horror of our situation, and leave us in 
increased darkness: meantime, the wind became more violent, blowing 
on the shore; and a heavy sea, raised by its force, united with it to make 
our state more formidable. 

By daylight, on the morning of the twentieth, the gale had increased 
to a furious tempest; and the sea, keeping pace with it, ran mountain- 
high, and as it kept invariably to the same point, the captain and officers 
became seriously alarmed, and almost persuaded that the south-west mon¬ 
soon had set in, which, if it were so, would render it absolutely impossi¬ 
ble for us to weather the coast. All that day, however, we kept as close 
as the violence of the weather would allow us, to the wind; but the sea 
canted her head so to leeward, that she made more lee than headway; 
and the rigging was so strained with the work that we had little hope of 
keeping off the shore, unless the wind changed, of which there was 
not now the smallest probability. During the night, there was no inter¬ 
mission of the storm: many of the sails flew into ribbons ; some of the 
rigging was carried away; and such exertions were made, that, before 
morning, every stick that could possibly be struck, was down upon the 
deck. 

About seven o’clock on the morning of the twenty-first, I was alarmed 
by an unusual noise upon the deck, and running up, perceived that every 
remaining sail in the vessel, the fore-sail alone excepted, was totally car¬ 
ried away. The sight was horrible; and the whole vessel presented a 

(181) 




SUFFERINGS OF DONALD CAMPBELL. 


182 

spectacle as dreadful to the feelings, as mortifying to human pride. Fear 
had produced not only all the helplessness of despondency, but all the 
mischievous freaks of insanity. In one place stood the captain, raving, 
stamping, and tearing his hair in handfuls from his head—here some of 
the crew were cast upon their knees, clapping their hands, and praying, 
with all the extravagance of horror painted in their faces—there, others 
were flogging their images, with all their might, calling upon them to 
allay the storm. One of our passengers, who was purser of an English 
East Indiaman, had got hold of a case-bottle of rum, and. with an air of 
distraction and deep despair imprinted on his face, was stalking about in 
his shirt. I perceived him to be on the point of serving it out, in large 
tumblers, to the few undismayed people, and well convinced, that, so far 
from alleviating, it would sharpen the horrors of their minds, I went 
forward, and with much difficulty prevented him. 

Having accomplished this point, I applied myself to the captain, and 
endeavored to bring him back (if possible) to his recollection, and to a 
sense of what he owed to his duty as a commander, and to his dignity as 
a man: I exhorted him to encourage the sailors by his example j and 
strove to raise his spirits by saying that the storm did not appear to me 
by any means so terrible as some I had before experienced. 

While I was thus employed, we shipped a sea on the starboard side, 
which, I really thought, would have sent us down. The vessel seemed 
to sink beneath its weight, shivered, and remained motionless. It was a 
moment of critical suspense: fancy made me think I felt her gradually 
descending—I gave myself up as gone, and summoned all my fortitude 
to bear approaching death with becoming manhood. 

Just at this crisis, the water, which rushed with incredible force through 
all parts of the vessel, brought out floating, and nearly suffocated, another 
English passenger, who was endeavoring to take a little repose in a small 
cabin boarded off from the deck: he was a very stout young man, and 
full of true spirit. Finding that the vessel was not, as I had thought, 
going immediately down, he joined me in exhorting the captain to his 
duty; we persuaded him to throw the guns overboard, as well as a num¬ 
ber of trunks and packages, with which the vessel was much encumbered, 
and, with some little exertion, we got the pumps set agoing. 

The name of the English passenger who assisted me in getting the 
captain and mariners to do their duty, was Hall. He and I having, wdth 
great difficulty, got some hands to stick to the pumps, stood at the wheel, 
at once to assist the men, and prevent them from quitting it; and, al¬ 
though hopeless, determined that no effort practicable on our part should 
be wanting to the preservation of the vessel. The water, however, 
gained upon the pumps, notwithstanding every effort; and it evidently 
appeared that we could not keep her long above water. 

At ten o’clock the wind seemed to increase, and amounted to a down¬ 
right hurricane: the sky was so entirely obscured with black clouds, and 
the rain fell so thick, that objects were not discernable from the wheel 
to the ship’s head. Soon the pumps were choked, and could no longer 
be worked: then dismay seized on all—nothing but unutterable despair, 
silent anguish, and horror, wrought up to frenzy, were to be seen; not a 
single soul was capable of an effort to be useful—all seemed more desi¬ 
rous to extinguish their calamities by embracing death, than willing, by 
a painful exertion, to avoid it. 

At about eleven o’clock, we could plainly distinguish a dreadful 
roaring noise, resembling that of waves rolling against rocks; but the 


DREADFUL STORM. 


183 


darkness of the day, and the accompanying rains, prevented us from see¬ 
ing any distance; and if they were rocks, we might be actually dashed 
to pieces on them, before we could perceive them. At twelve o’clock, 
however, the weather cleared up a little, when we discovered breakers 
and large rocks outside of us; so that it appeared we must have passed 
quite close to them, and were now fairly hemmed in between them and 
the land. In this very critical juncture, the captain adopted the dangerous 
resolution of letting go an anchor, to bring her up with her head to the sea. 
Though no seaman, my common sense told me that she could never ride 
it out, but must directly go down. The event nearly justified my judg¬ 
ment: for she had scarcely been at anchor, before an eriormous sea, 
rolling over her, overwhelmed and filled her with water, and every one 
on board concluded that she was certainly sinking. On the instant, a. 
Lascar, with a presence of mind worthy an old English mariner, took an 
ax, ran forward, and cut the cable. 

On finding herself free, the vessel again floated, and made an effort to 
right herself; but she was almost completely water-logged, and* heeled 
to larboard so much that the gunwale lay under water. We then endeav¬ 
ored to steer, as fast as we could, for the land, which we knew could not 
be at any great distance, though we were unable to discover it through 
the hazy weather. The foresail was loosened; by great efforts in bailing 
she righted a little; her gunwale was got above water, and we scudded, as 
well as we could, before the wind, which still blew hard on shore, and 
at about two o’clock, the land appeared at a small distance ahead. 

The love of life countervails all other considerations in the mind of 
man. The uncertainty we were under with regard to the shore before 
us, which we had reason to believe was part of Hyder Ali’s dominions, 
(then at war with the English,) where we should meet with the most 
rigorous treatment, if not ultimate death, was forgotten in the joyful hope 
of saving life ; and we scudded toward the shore in all the exulting trans¬ 
ports of people just snatched from the jaws of death. 

This gleam of happiness continued not long: a tremendous sea rolling 
after us, broke over our stern, tore everything before it, stove in the 
steerage, carried away the rudder, shivered the wheel to pieces, and 
tore up the very ring-bolts of the deck, conveyed the men who stood at 
the deck forward, and swept them overboard. I was standing, at the 
time, near the wheel, and fortunately had hold of the tafferel, which en¬ 
abled me to resist in part the weight of the wave. I was, however, swept 
off my feet, and dashed against the main-mast. The jerk from the taf¬ 
ferel, which I held very tenaciously, seemed as if it would have dislocated 
my arms: however, it broke the impetus of my motion, and, in all proba¬ 
bility, saved me from being dashed to pieces against the mast. 

I floundered about in the water, at the foot of the mast, till at length 1 
got on my feet, and seized a rope, which I held in a state of great em 
barrassment, dubious what I should do to extricate myself. At this 
instant I perceived that Mr. Hall had got upon the capstan, and was 
waving his hand to me to follow his example: this I wished to do, though 
it was an enterprise of some risk and difficulty; for, if I lost the hold I 
had, a single motion of the vessel, or a full wave, would certainly carry 
me overboard. I made a bold push, however, and fortunately accom¬ 
plished it. Having attained this station, I could the better survey the 
wreck, and saw that the water was nearly breast high on the quarter-deck, 
(for the vessel was deep-waisted;) and I perceived the unfortunate 
English purser standing where the water was most shallow, as if watching 


SUFFERINGS OF DONALD CAMPBELL. 


184 

with patient expectation its rising, and awaiting death. I called to him 
to come to us, but he shook his head in despair, and said, in a lamenta¬ 
ble tone, “It is all over with us! God have mercy upon us!” then seated 
himself, with seeming composure, on a chair which happened to be roll¬ 
ing about in the wreck of the deck, and, in a few minutes afterward, was 
washed into the sea along with it, where he was speedily released from 
a state ten thousand times worse than death. 

During this universal wreck of things, the horror I was in, could not 
prevent me .from observing a very curious circumstance, which, at any 
other time, would have excited laughter, though it now produced no other 
emotion than surprise. We happened to be in part laden with mangoes, 
of which the island of Goa is known to produce the finest in the world; 
some of them lay in baskets on the poop. A little black boy, in the 
moment of greatest danger, had got seated by them, devouring them 
voraciously, and crying all the time most bitterly, at the horrors of his 
situation. The vessel now got completely water-logged; and Mr. Hall 
and I were employed in forming conjectural calculations how many 
minutes she could keep above water, and consoling one another on 
the unfortunate circumstances under which we met. 

As the larboard side of the vessel was gradually going down, the deck, 
and of course the capstan, became too nearly perpendicular for us to 
continue on it: we therefore foresaw the necessity of quitting it, and got 
upon the starboard side, holding fast by the gunwale, and allowing our 
bodies and legs to yield to the sea as it broke over us. Thus we con¬ 
tinued for some time: at length the severity of the labor so entirely 
exhausted our strength and spirits that our only hope seemed to be a 
speedy conclusion to our painful death, and we began to have serious 
intentions of letting go our hold, and yielding ourselves up at once to the 
fury of the waves. The vessel, which all this time drifted with the sea 
and wind, gradually approximated the shore, and at length struck the 
ground, which, for an instant, revived our almost departed hopes, but we 
soon found that it did not, in the smallest degree, better our situation. 

Observing the people consulting together, and resolving to join them, 
I made an effort to get to the lee-shrouds, where they were standing, or 
rather clinging; but before I could accomplish it, I lost my hold, fell 
down the hatchway, (the gratings having been carried away with the 
long-boat,) and was for some minutes entangled there among a heap of 
packages, which the violent fluctuations of the water had collected on 
the lee-side. As the vessel moved with the sea, and the water flowed 
in, the packages and I were rolled together—sometimes one, sometimes 
another, uppermost; so that I began to be apprehensive I should not be 
able to extricate myself: by the merest accident, however, I grasped 
something that lay in my way, made a vigorous spring, and gained the 
lee-shrouds. Mr. Hall, who followed me, in seizing the shrouds, came 
thump against me with such violence, that I could scarcely retain my hold 
of the rigging. Compelled by the perilous situation in which I stood, 1 
called out to him for God’s sake to keep off, that I was rendered quite 
breathless and worn out: he generously endeavored to make way for me, 
and, in doing so, unfortunately lost his hold, and went down under the 
ship’s side. Never, never shall I forget my sensations at this melancholy 
incident—I would have given millions of worlds that I could have recalled 
the words which made him move ; my mind was wound up to the last 
pitch of anguish, when, as much to my astonishment as to my joy, I saw 
him borne by a returning wave, and thrown among the very packages 


SHIPWRECK. 


185 

from which 1 had but just before, with such labor and difficulty, extri¬ 
cated myself. In the end, he proved equally fortunate, but after a much 
longer and harder struggle, and after sustaining much more injury. 

1 once more changed my station, and made my way to the poop, where 
1 found myself rather more sheltered. I earnestly wished Mr. Hall to 
be with me,'whatever might be my ultimate fate, and beckoned to him to 
come to me; but he only answered by shaking his head, in a feeble, de¬ 
sponding manner—staring, at the same time, wildly about him: even his 
spirit was subdued; and despair, I perceived, had begun to take posses¬ 
sion of his mind. 

Being a little more at ease in my new station than I had been before, 
1 had more time to deliberate, and more power to judge. I recollected 
that, according to the course of time, the day was far gone, and the night 
quickly approaching: I reflected, that for any enterprise whatsoever, day 
was much preferable to night; and, above all, I considered that the ves¬ 
sel could not hold long together. I therefore thought that the best mode 
I could adopt, would be to take to the water with the first buoyant thing 
i could see, and, as the wind and water both seemed to run to the shore, 
to take my chance, in that way, of reaching it. In pursuance of this reso¬ 
lution, I tore off my shirt, having before that thrown off the other parts 
of my dress. I looked at my sleeve-buttons, in which was set the hair 
of my departed children, rolled my shirt up, and very carefully thrust it 
into a hole between decks, with the wild hope that the sleeve-buttons 
might yet escape untouched. Watching my opportunity, I saw a log of 
wood floating near the vessel, and, waving my hand to Mr. Hall, as a last 
adieu, jumped after it. Here, again, I was doomed to aggravated hard¬ 
ships : I had scarcely touched the log when a great sea snatched it from 
my hold: still, as it came near me, I grasped at it ineffectually, till, at 
last, it was completely carried away, but not before it had cut, and bat¬ 
tered, and bruised me in several places, and in a manner that, at any other 
time, I should have thought dreadful. 

Death seemed inevitable: and all that occurred to me now to do was 
to accelerate it, and get out of its pangs as speedily as possible ; for, 
though I knew how to swim, the tremendous surf rendered swimming 
useless, and all hope from that would have been ridiculous. I therefore 
began to swallow as much water as possible; yet, still rising by the buoy¬ 
ant principle of the waves to the surface, my former thoughts began to 
recur; and whether it was that, or natural instinct, which survived the 
temporary impressions of despair, I know not—but I endeavored to swim, 
which I had not done long, when I again discovered the log of wood 1 
had lost, floating near me, and with some difficulty caught it: hardly had 
it been an instant in my hands, when, by the same unlucky means, I lost 
it again. I had often heard it said in Scotland, that if a man will throw 
himself flat on his back in the water, lie quite straight and stiff, and suf¬ 
fer himself to sink till the water gets into his ears, he will continue to 
float so forever. This occurred to me now, and I determined to try the 
experiment; so I threw myself on my back, in the manner I have de¬ 
scribed, and left myself to the disposal of Providence. Nor was I mis¬ 
taken; for, in a short time more, without any effort or exertion, and 
without once turning from oft' my back, I found myself strike against the 
sandy beach. Overjoyed, as you may well suppose, to the highest pitch 
of transport, at my Providential deliverance, I made a convulsive spring, 
and ran up a little distance on the shore; but was so weak and worn 
dowu by fatigue, and so unable to clear my stomach of the salt water 


SUFFERINGS OF DONALD CAMPBELL. 


186 

with which it was loaded, that I suddenly grew deadly sick, and appre 
hended that I had only exchanged one death for another; and in p 
minute or two fainted away. 

How long I continued in the swoon into which I had fallen, it is im¬ 
possible for me to tell; but when I recovered, I found myself surrounded 
by a guard of armed soldiers, sepoys, and pikemen. I knew them im¬ 
mediately to be the troops of Hyder Ali, and almost wished myself bad; 
into the waves again. Looking round, I saw that the people and effects 
that had been saved from the" wreck, were collected all together along 
with me. In this state, we remained till it was dark. A Lascar belong¬ 
ing to the vessel, perceiving that my nakedness gave me great concern, 
tore in two a piece of cloth which he had tied round his waist, and 
gave me one part of it, which afforded a short apron. Of all the acts of 
beneficence I ever met with, this struck me the most forcibly: it had 
kindness, disinterestedness and delicacy for its basis; and I have never 
since thought of it without wishing that I could meet the man, to reward 
him for his beneficence, with a subsistence for life. The lower order 
of people of a certain country, I know, would think a man in such 
circumstances as I was then in, a fitter object of pleasantry than pity. 

The vast quantity of salt water I had swallowed, still made me deadly 
sick in the stomach: however, after some time, I threw it up, and got 
great relief. I had hardly felt the comfortable effects of this, before I 
was ordered to march ; nine of us, all Lascars except myself, were con¬ 
veyed to a village at a few miles distance, on the sea-side, where we were, 
for the night, put into a square place, walled round, open to the inclem¬ 
ency of the weather above and below, and filled with large logs of wood; 
it blew most violently, and the rain fell in torrents—while not one smooth 
plank could be found on which to stretch our fatigued and wasted bodies. 
Thus, naked, sick, exhausted with fatigue and fasting, drenched with 
wet, and unable to lie down, our misery might be supposed to be inca¬ 
pable of increase. But, alas! where are the bounds we can set to 
human woe? Thirst, that most dreadful of pains, occasioned by the 
drenching with salt-water, seized us: we begged, we entreated, we 
clamored for water, but the inhuman wretches, deaf to the groans and 
screeches of their fellow-creatures, (for some grew delirious with the 
agony of thirst,) refused them even the cheap and miserable indulgence 
of a drop of water! 

Indeed, a night of more exquisite horror cannot be imagined. The 
thought of being a prisoner in the hands of Hyder Ali was, of itself, 
sufficient to render me completely unhappy: but my utter want of clothes 
almost put me beside myself; and lying exposed to the open air, where 
l was glad to sit close to the Lascars, to receive a little heat from their 
bodies, and to hold open my mouth in order to catch a drop of the de¬ 
scending rain, was a state that might be considered as the highest refine¬ 
ment upon misery. 

About four o’clock in the morning, a little cold rice was brought us to 
eat, and water was dug out of a hole near the spot for us; but as all things 
in this life are good or bad merely relatively, this wretched fare was some 
refreshment to us. I was then removed to the ruins of a hut, separated 
from the rest, and a guard set over me. Here I had full room for 
reflection. The whole of my situation appeared before me with all its 
aggravating circumstances of horror; and to any one who considers it, 1 
believe it will appear that it was hardly possible to fill the bitter cup of 
calamity fuller. 


A PAINFUL MARCH. 


187 

In this state I was, when, to my utter astonishment, and to my no less 
joy, the companion of my shipwreck, Mr. Hall, appeared before me. I 
scarcely knew how to think his appearance reality, as I understood that 
the Lascars then along with me were all that were saved from the wreck, 
and he was, at the time I parted from him, so exhausted both in body and 
mind, that I thought he would be the last who could escape. He, how¬ 
ever, shook me by the hand; and, sitting down, told me that he had given 
me up for lost, and remained with the vessel until the tide, having ebbed, 
left her almost dry: that, immediately on getting ashore, and being taken 
prisoner, he made inquiries about me; and heard that I had been saved* 
that, finding this, his joy was such as to make him almost forget his own 
misfortunes, and, exerting all his entreaties not to be separated from me, 
they had been so far indulgent to him, and had brought him to me, that 
we might be companions in bondage. He added, that out of eleven Eu¬ 
ropeans and fifty-six Lascars, who were on board, only he and I of the 
former, and fourteen of the latter were saved from the wreck, the rest 
being drowned in the attempt, excepting some who, overcome with terror, 
anguish and anxiety, and exhausted with fatigue, had bid a formal adieu 
to their companions, let go their hold, and calmly and voluntarily given 
themselves up to the deep. 

My pleasure, however, at escaping shipwreck, was by no means as 
great as the agony my mind underwent, as the prospect now before me 
was poignant. The unmerciful disposition of Hyder, and all those in 
authority under him, and the cruel policy of the Eastern chiefs, making 
the life of any one, particularly a British prisoner, at the best a preca¬ 
rious tenure, 1 did not know the moment when death might be inflicted 
upon me, with perhaps a thousand aggravating circumstances. But the ab¬ 
ject state of want and nakedness in which it seemed I was likely to remain 
struck a deep and damp horror to my heart, and almost unmanned me. 

For some days we lay in this place, exposed to the weather, without 
even the slender comfort of a little straw to cover the ground beneath 
us—our food, boiled rice, served very sparingly twice a day, by an old 
woman, who just threw a handful or more of it to each, upon a very dirty 
board, which we devoured with those spoons nature gave us. At the 
end of that time, we, and along with us the Lascars, were ordered to 
proceed into the country, and drove on foot to a considerable distance, 
in order to render up an account of ourselves to persons belonging to 
Government authorized to take it. It was advanced in the morning when 
we moved, without receiving any sort of sustenance; and were marched 
in that wasting climate eight hours, without breaking our fast, during 
which time we were exposed alternately to the scorching rays of the sun, 
and heavy torrents of rain, which raised painful blisters on our skin; we 
had often to stand exposed to the weather, or to lie down, under the pres¬ 
sure of fatigue and weakness, on the bare ground; then wait an hour or 
more at the door of some insolent, unfeeling monster, until he finished 
his dinner, or took his afternoon nap; and when this was over, were 
driven forward with wanton barbarity by the people who attended us. 

Two days after this, we were moved again, and marched up the country 
by a long and circuitous route, in which we underwent every hardship that 
cruelty could inflict, or human fortitude endure—now blistered with the 
heat, now drenched with rain, and now chilled with the night-damps— 
destitute of any place but the bare earth to rest, or lay our heads on, with 
only a scanty pittance of boiled rice for our support—often without water 
to quench our thirst, and constantly goaded by the guards, who pricked 


SUFFERINGS OF DONALD CAMPBELL. 


18S 

us with their bayonets every now and then, at once to evince their power, 
entertain the spectators, and mortify us. We arrived at Hydernagur, the 
metropolis of the province of Biddanore—a fort of considerable strength, 
mounting upward of seventy guns, containing a large garrison of men, 
and possessed | of immense wealth. It was about two o’clock in the 
morning when we arrived at Biddanore: the day was extremely hot, and 
we were kept out, under the full heat of that broiling sun, till six o’clock 
in the evening before we were admitted to an audience of the Jemadar, 
or governor of the place, without having a mouthful of victuals offered 
to us after the fatiguing march of the morning. 

While we stood in the court, waiting to be brought before the Jemadar, 
we presented a spectacle that would have wrung pity, one would think, 
from the heart of a tiger, if a tiger was endowed with reflection. At 
length we were summoned to appear before him, and brought into his 
presence. I had made up my mind for the occasion—determined to 
deport myself in a manly, candid manner—and to let no consideration 
whatsoever lead me to any thing disgraceful to my real character, or un¬ 
worthy my situation in life ; and, finally, had prepared myself to meet, 
without shrinking, whatever misfortunes might yet be in store for me, or 
whatever cruelties the barbarous disposition, or wicked policy, of the 
tyrant might think proper to inflict. 

On entering, we found the Jemadar in full court. He was then occu¬ 
pied with the reading of dispatches, and in transacting other public busi¬ 
ness. We were placed directly opposite to him, where we stood for near 
an hour, during which time he never cast his eyes toward us. But when 
at last he had concluded the business in which he was engaged, and 
deigned to look at us, we were ordered to prostrate ourselves before him: 
the Lascars immediately obeyed the order, and threw themselves on 
the ground; but I contented myself with making a salam, in which poor 
Mr. Hall, who knew not the Eastern manner as I did, followed my example. 

As soon as this ceremony was over, the Jemadar (who was no other 
man than the famous Hyat Sahib,) began to question me. He desired to 
know who I was?—what my profession was?—what was the cause and 
manner of my approaching the country of Hyder Ali? To all those 
questions I gave answers that seemed to satisfy him. Having exhausted 
his whole string of questions, he turned the discourse to another subject, 
no less than his great and puissant Lord and Master, Hyder, of whom he 
had endeavored to impress me with a great if not terrible idea—amplify¬ 
ing his power, his wealth, and the extent and opulence of his dominions, 
and describing to me, in the most exaggerated terms, the number of his 
troops—his military talents—his vast, and, according to his account, un¬ 
rivaled genius — his amazing abilities in conquering and governing 
nations—and, above all, his many amiable qualities and splendid endow¬ 
ments of heart, no less than understanding. He then vaunted of his 
sovereign’s successes over the English, some of which I had not heard 
of before, and did not believe; and concluded by assuring me, that it 
was Hyder’s determination to drive all Europeans from Hindoostan, 
which, he averred he could not fail to do, considering the weakness of the 
one, and boundless power of the other. 

After having expended near half an hour in this manner, he called 
upon me to come over near him, and caused me to seat myself upon a 
mat, with a pillow to lean upon—encouraged me, by every means he 
could, by the most gentle accents, and the most soothing, mollifying lan¬ 
guage, to speak to him without the least reserve—exhorted me to tell 


IN PRISON. 


189 

him the truth in everything we spoke of—and hinted to me, that my falling 
into his hands might turn out the most fortunate event of my life. I was 
at a loss to what motive to attribute all those singular marks of indul¬ 
gence ; but found that he had learned whose son I was, and knew my 
father, by reputation, from the prisoners, our sepoys, who were now pri¬ 
soners at large here: and as rank and office are the chief recommenda¬ 
tions in the East, as elsewhere, or rather much more than any where 
else, the sagacious Hyat Sahib found many claims to esteem and human¬ 
ity in me, as the son of a Colonel Campbell, which he never would have 
found in me, had I been the son of a plain, humble farmer, or tradesman 
in England. 

After a full hour’s audience, in which Hyat Sahib treated me with dis¬ 
tinguished marks of his favor, considering my situation, he dismissed me 
with the ceremony of beetle-nut, rose-water, and other compliments, 
which are in that country held as the strongest marks of politeness, re¬ 
spect and good-will. Leaving the Durbar, I was led to the inner fort or 
citadel: and the officious zeal of those about me, unwilling to let me 
remain ignorant of that which they conceived to be a most fortunate turn 
in my affairs, gave the coup de grace to my miseries, as I went along, by 
congratulating me on the favorable opinion which the Jemadar had formed 
of me, and intimating, at the same time, that I would soon be honored 
with a respectable command in Hyder’s service. 

That night, the Jemadar sent me an excellent supper, of not less than 
six dishes, from his own table; and although I had been so long famish¬ 
ing with the want of wholesome food, the idea of being enlisted in the 
service of Hyder struck me with such horror, that I lost all appetite, and 
was scarcely able to eat a mouthful. Mr. Hall and I, however, were 
separated from the Lascars, who were released and forced to work. 

Notwithstanding the favorable intentions manifested toward me by the 
Jemadar, as I have already mentioned, no mark of it whatsoever appeared 
in our lodging. This consisted of a small place, exactly the size of our 
length and breadth, in the zigzag of one of the gates of the citadel. It 
was open in front, but covered with a kind of shed on the top; and a 
number of other prisoners were about us. Each of us was allowed a 
mat and pillow, and this formed the whole of our local accommodations. 
Upon my remarking it, we were told that in conformity to the custom of 
the country, we must be treated so for some time, but that our accommo¬ 
dations would afterward be extended, and made more agreeable to our 
wishes: even this was better than our situation since we landed. In 
addition to this luxury, we were allowed to the value of four pence half¬ 
penny a day for our maintenance; and a guard of sepoys was put over 
us and a few more prisoners, one of whom was directed to go and 
purchase our victuals, and do such offices for us. 

In two or three days after this, Hyat Sahib sent for me, treated me 
with great kindness, gave me some tea, and furnished me with two or 
three shirts, an old coat, and two pairs of breeches, which were stripped 
from the dead bodies that were thrown ashore from the wreck—every¬ 
thing that was saved from it being sent to Biddanore. At this interview 
he treated me great respect—gave me, beside the articles already men¬ 
tioned, thirty rupees, and, upon my going away, told me that in a few 
days a very flattering proposal would be made to me, and that my situation 
would be rendered not only comfortable, but enviable. 

On the evening of that day, I was sent for to attend not at the Durbar, 
but at the house of a man high in office. As I expected to meet Hyat 


190 


SUFFERINGS OF DONALD CAMPBELL. 


Sahib himself, and trembled at the thoughts of his expected proposition, 
1 was surprised, and indeed pleased, to find that it was with one of his 
people only, I was to have a conference. This man, whose name I now 
forget, received me with great kindness, encouraged me, made me sit 
down with him, and began to speak of Hyat Sahib, whom he extolled to 
the skies, as a person endowed with every great and amiable quality; 
informing me, at the same time, that he was possessed of the friendship 
and confidence of his master, Hyder Ali, in a greater degree than any 
other person—Tippoo Sahib, his own son, not excepted. 

When he had finished his history of Hyat Sahib, which he overcharged 
with fulsome panegyric, he told me, with a face full of that triumphant 
importance which one who thinks he is conferring a great favor generally 
assumes, that it was the intention of Hyat Sahib, for and on behalf of his 
master, the Sultan, to give me the command of five thousand men— 
an offer which he supposed I could not think of declining, and there¬ 
fore expected no other answer but a profusion of thanks, and strong 
manifestations of joy, on my part. 

It is not possible for me to describe to you my dismay at this formal 
proposal, or portray to you the various emotions that took possession of 
my breast. Resentment had its share—the pride of the soldier, not un¬ 
accompanied with the pride of family and rank, while it urged me to 
spurn from me such a base accommodation, made me consider the offer 
as a great insult. I therefore paused a little to suppress my feelings, 
and then told him my firm resolution never to accept of such a proposal; 
and upon his expressing great astonishment at my declining a station so 
fraught with advantage, I laid down, in the best manner I could, my rea¬ 
sons; and I must say, that he listened to all the objections I started with 
great patience, but, in the conclusion, said he had little doubt of finding 
means to overcome my reluctance. 

He dismissed me for the present, and I returned to my prison, where I 
related to my companion, Mr. Hall, everything that passed between us. 
We canvassed the matter fully, and he agreed with me that it was likely 
to turn out a most dreadful and cruel persecution. Piqued by the idea, 
I began to feel a degree of enthusiasm which I was before a stranger to. 
I looked forward with a kind of gloomy pleasure to the miseries that bru¬ 
tal tyranny might inflict upon me, even to death itself: and already began 
to indulge in the exultation of martyrdom. Indeed, I had wrought my¬ 
self up to such a pitch of firmness, that I am persuaded the most exqui¬ 
site and refined cruelties which the ingenuity of an Iroquois Indian could 
have inflicted on my body, would have been utterly incapable of bending 
the stubborn temper of my mind. 

On the day succeeding that on which the agent of Hyat Sahib had 
held the discourse with me, I was again sent for, and brought to the same 
person, who asked me, whether I had duly considered of the important 
offer made me by Hyat Sahib, and of the consequences likely to result 
from a refusal? and he apprised me, at the same time, that the command 
of five thousand men was an honor which the first rajahs in the Mysorean 
dominions would grasp at with transport. I told him I was well convinced 
of the honor such a command would confer on any man but an English¬ 
man, whose country, being then the subject of Hyder’s incessant hostility 
would make the acceptance of it infamy and finally, appealed to the 
good sense of Hyat Sahib, whether a man who, in such circumstances, 
had betrayed his country, and sacrified her interests to his own conve¬ 
nience, was such a person as confidence could properly be put in. 


TRAITOROUS PROPOSALS. 


191 

Notwithstanding these and a thousand other remonstrances, he still 
continued to press me, and used every argument, every persuasion, that 
ingenuity could dictate, or hints of punishment enforce, to shake my 
purpose—but in vain: attachment to country and family rose paramount 
to all other considerations; and 1 gave a peremptory, decisive refusal. 

Circumstanced as I was, it was impossible for me to keep an accurate 
journal of the various incidents that passed, or vicissitudes of thoughts 
that occurred, during the period of my imprisonment. Indeed, I was 
scarcely conscious of the length of my captivity, and could not, till I was 
released, determine exactly how long it had continued. I can only say, 
in general terms, that I was repeatedly urged on the subject by fair per¬ 
suasives : they then had recourse to menace; then they withheld the 
daily pittance allowed for my support; and at length proceeded to coer¬ 
cion—tying a rope round my neck, and hoisting me up to a tree. All 
this, however, I bore firmly: if it had any effect, it was to confirm me in 
my resolution, and call in policy to the aid of honor’s dictates. As the 
horrors of my situation thickened round me, I felt my spirits increase; 
my resolution became more firm, my hopes more sanguine—I even began 
to look forward, and form projects for the future: whole hours’ amuse¬ 
ment, every day and every night, arose from the contemplation of my 
beloved boy. I, in imagination, traced his growth, directed his rising 
sentiments, formed plans for his future success and prosperity, and in¬ 
dulged by anticipation in all the enjoyment which I now trust I shall yet 
have in his ripened manhood. 

Thus we continued for many months, during which no alteration what¬ 
soever took place in our treatment or situation. The only relief from 
our sufferings lay in the resources of our own minds, and in our mutual 
endeavors to please and console one another. The circumstances of 
aggravation were the necessity of daily bearing witness to the most bar¬ 
barous punishments he inflicted upon wretched individuals, under the 
semblance of justice, and the occasional deprivation of our food, either 
by the fraud of the sepoys who attended us, or the caprice or cruelty of 
their superiors. It is but justice, however, to say that they were not all 
alike: some overflowed with mercy, charity, and the milk of human kind¬ 
ness ; while others, again, were almost as bad men as the sovereigns 
they served. We were not allowed the use of pen, ink, or paper ; and 
very seldom could afford ourselves the luxury of shaving or clean linen: 
nor were we at all sheltered from the inclemency of the weather, till at 
length a little room was built for us of mud, which, being small and damp, 
rendered our situation worse than it was before. 

Projects and hopes of a new kind now began to intrude themselves on 
my thoughts; and I conceived a design, which I flattered myself was not 
entirely impracticable, to effect an escape, and even a revolt in the place, 
but, while I was settling this much to my own satisfaction, an event 
occurred which extinguished all my hopes in that way. 

Whether the plan was discovered or not, or from what over motive it 
arose, I have not to this day been able to decide, but so it was, that while 
ray sanguine mind was overflowing with the hope of carrying my project 
for an escape into effect, Mr. Hall and I were one day unexpectedly 
loaded with irons, and fastened together, leg by leg, by one bolt. The 
surprise occasioned by the appearance of the irons, and the precautionary 
manner in which it was undertaken, was indeed great: still more was I 
surprised to observe that the person who was employed to see this put 
in execution, manifested unusual emotions, seemed much affected, and 


SUFFERINGS OF DONALD CAMPBELL. 


192 

even shed tears as he looked on: and while the suddenness and caution¬ 
ary mode of doing it, convinced me that some resistance on our part was 
apprehended, the sorrow which the officer who superintended it disclosed, 
portended in my mind a fatal, or, at least, a very serious issue. Unfortu¬ 
nately, poor Mr. Hall had for some time been afflicted with a return of 
his dreadful disorder, the dysentery. From this unlucky event, I re¬ 
ceived a temporary depression; and his rapidly increasing illness ren¬ 
dered our situation more than ever calamitous. The disease soon fell 
upon him with redoubled fury: a very scanty portion of boiled rice, with 
a more scanty morsel of stinking salt fish, or putrid flesh, was a very in¬ 
adequate support for me, who, though emaciated, was in health—and 
very improper medicine for a person laboring under a malady such as 
Mr. Hall’s, which required comfort, good medical skill, and delicate, 
nutritious food. The tea which Hyat Sahib had given me was expended; 
and we were not allowed to be shaved from the hour we were put in 
irons, an indulgence of that kind being forbidden by the barbarous rules 
of the prison: and, to refine upon our tortures, sleep, “ that balm of hurt 
minds,” was not allowed us uninterrupted, for, in conformity to another 
regulation, we were disturbed every half-hour by a noise something re¬ 
sembling a watchman’s rattle, and a fellow who, striking every part of 
our irons with a kind of hammer, and examining them lest they should 
be cut, broke in upon that kind restorative, and awoke our souls to fresh 
horrors. 

Poor Hall was now approaching to his end with hourly accelerated 
steps. Every application that I made in his favor was refused, or rather 
treated with cruel neglect and contemptuous silence. Hyat Sahib, the 
powerful, the wealthy, the governor of a great opulent province, refused 
to an expiring fellow-creature a little cheap relief—while a poor sepoy 
taxed his little means to supply it: one who guarded us, of his own 
accord, at imminent hazard of punishment, purchased us a lamp and 
a little oil, which we burned for the last few nights, till my dear friend 
died, exhausted by disease, neglect, and cruelty. 

In the morning a report was made to the commandant of the death of 
Mr. Hall; and in about an hour afterward he passed me by, but kept his 
face purposely turned away from me to the other side. I patiently waited 
for the removal of the dead body till the evening, when I desired the 
sepoys who guarded me to apply for its being removed. They returned, 
and told me they could get no answer respecting it. Night came on, but 
there was no appearance of an intention to unfetter me from the corpse. 
The commandant was sitting in his court, administering, in the manner I 
have before described, justice! I called out to him myself, with all my 
might, but could get no answer from him. Nothing could equal my rage 
and consternation; for, exclusive of the painful idea of being shackled 
to the dead body of a friend I loved, another circumstance contributed 
to make it a serious subject of horror. In those climates the weather is 
so intensely hot, that putrefaction almost instantly succeeds death, and 
meat that is killed in the morning, and kept in the shade, will be unfit 
for dressing at night. In a subject, then, on which putrefaction had made 
advances even before death, and which remained exposed to the open 
air, the process must have been much more rapid. So far, however, from 
compassionating my situation, or indulging me by a removal of the body, 
their barbarity suggested to them to make it an instrument of punish¬ 
ment ; and they pertinaciously adhered to the most mortifying silence 
and disregard of my complaints. For several days and nights it remained 


CHAINED TO A CORPSE. 


193 

attached to me by the irons. I grew almost distracted—wished for the 
means of putting an end to my miseries by death, and could not move 
without witnessing some new stage of putrescence it attained, or breathe 
without inhaling the putrid effluvia that arose from it—while myriads of 
flies and loathsome insects rested on it, the former of which every now 
and then visited me, crawling over my face and hands, and lighting in 
hundreds on my victuals. 

At last, when the body had reached that shocking, loathsome state of 
putrefaction, which threatened that further delay would render removal 
abominable, if not impossible, the monsters agreed to take it away from 
me, and I was so far relieved: but the mortification and injury I underwent 
from it, joined to the agitation of the preceding week, made a visible in¬ 
road on my health. I totally lost my spirits; my appetite entirely forsook 
me: my long nourished hopes fled; and I looked forward to death as the 
only desirable event that was within the verge of likelihood or possibility. 
One day I perceived a more than usual bustle in the citadel, while the 
sepoys informed me that they were ordered on immediate service, and 
that some events of great importance had taken place. In a day or two 
the bustle increased to a high pitch, accompanied with marks of conster¬ 
nation: the whole of the troops in the citadel were ordered to march, 
and the commandant, and a man with a hammer and instrument,, came to 
take off my irons. 

I was utterly at a loss to conjecture what this so sudden resolution to 
release me meant. I endeavored to get some explanation of it from the 
persons about me; but all I could at the time collect, was that the Jema¬ 
dar had directed me to be taken out of irons, and ordered me to appear 
before him. As we proceeded forward, we found, at some distance from 
the fort, an open dooly, into which the guards forcibly crammed me; and 
I was carried off, still attended by the same men. As we went along, 
they gave me to understand that Hyat Sahib, the Jemadar, was at a place 
ten or a dozen miles distant from Biddanore, I thought it within myself 
a most extraordinary circumstance, and was at a loss to conjecture for 
what purpose he required my presence there. 

When we had got about a mile from the fort, we met a person attended 
by three others, all on horseback. He was a man of considerable rank 
in that country, and I recollected to have seen him at the Jemadar’s court, 
where he had manifested a favorable disposition toward me, looking al¬ 
ways graciously, and nodding to me, which, considering my circumstances 
and his, was not a little extraordinary. The moment he recognized me, 
he leaped from his horse, apparently in great agitation: then, turning to 
the guards, ordered them to leave me immediately—saying, at the same 
time, that he would be answerable for the consequences. They seemed, 
at first, to hesitate whether to obey him or not: but on his shaking at 
them his sword, which was all along drawn in his hand, and smeared with 
blood, and repeating his orders a second time, in a firm and decisive 
tone of voice and manner, they all ran off. 

As soon as we were alone, he revealed to me, that he had all along 
known who I was—had most heartily pitied my sufferings, and privately 
entertained the most anxious wishes to serve me, but could not venture 
to interfere—the least jealousy, when once awakened, being there always 
followed up by summary vengeance. He then mentioned his name, in¬ 
forming me that he was the son of a Nabob near Vellore, whose domin¬ 
ions had been wrested from him by force, and united to the Carnatic; 
that his family had received great favors from my father, in return for 
13 


194 


SUFFERINGS OF DONALD CAMPBELL. 


which he felt himself bound to do me every service in his power; but 
that, having been, after the misfortunes which befell his family, taken into 
the service of Hyder, and holding then a place of consequence under 
him, he was disqualified from demonstrating his gratitude and esteem in 
the way he wished. Here he stopped, and seemed much agitated; but, 
recovering himself soon, said in a solemn and alarming manner, “ This 
day I heard Hyat Sahib give orders to bring you before him, in order 
that he might satiate his revenge by your death! How happy am 1 in 
having an opportunity to rescue you! I will carry you back with me, 
therefore, to Biddanore, and place you in a state of security with my 
family.” 

Just as I was on the point of returning with him to Hydernagur, we 
were startled by the Jemadar’s music, which was soon afterward suc¬ 
ceeded by the appearance of his guards, advancing toward us at some 
distance. He seemed confounded and alarmed—lamented, in warm 
terms, his incapacity to serve me—and pointed to a path which wound 
through a wood that lay on either side of the road, directed me to strike 
into it immediately, saying that by following that route I should certainly 
fall in with the British army. He then rode away, and I followed his 
advice, and proceeded for some time through the wood without interrup¬ 
tion ; for, though I did not implicitly believe the assertion that Hyat Sahib 
meant to have cut me off, I deemed it prudent to avail myself of the op¬ 
portunity which offered to effect my escape, apprehending a worse fate 
than death, namely, being sent prisoner to Seringapatam. 

The nearest English post to which I could make my escape, was the 
successful little army under General Matthews—an old friend of my fa¬ 
ther’s, and a person with whom I had sorved in the cavalry soon after 1 
entered the service. When I arrived he was fast asleep, upon the bare 
ground, in a tent. His servant, whose name was Snake, recollected me 
immediately, and was much frightened at my appearance, for it was full 
five months since my hair and beard were both shaved at the same time, 
during which period a comb had never touched my head. I had no hat, 
no stockings, was clad in a pair of very ragged breeches, a shirt which 
was so full of holes that it resembled rather a net than a web of cloth, 
and a waistcoat which had been made for a man twice my size—while my 
feet were defended from the stones only by a pair of Indian slippers. 
Snake, as soon as he was able to conquer his terror, and stop the loqua¬ 
cious effusions of astonishment, brought me to the General, who expressed 
great surprise at so unexpected a meeting. 

The sudden change of diet which I experienced on my restoration to 
liberty, had a most sudden and alarming effect upon my constitution; and 
1. was soon seized with the most excruciating internal pains, which were 
succeeded by a violent vomiting of blood. I felt as if my inside was 
utterly decayed, and all its functions lost in debility: at the same time my 
head seemed deranged—I could scarcely comprehend the meaning of 
what was said; lifting up my head was attended with agonizing pain; 
and if I had any power of thought, it was to consider myself as approach¬ 
ing fast to dissolution. Tranquillity, kind treatment, and good medical 
assistance, produced, in the space of two or three weeks, so material a 
change in my health, that I was soon in a condition to return to my usual 
duties. 


THE CAPTIVITY 


OP 


THOMAS ANDROS, 

SINCE PASTOE OP THE CHURCH AT BERKELEY, MASS., ON BOARD 

THE OLD JERSEY PRISON SHIP. 


I was but in my seventeenth year when the revolutionary struggle 
commenced, and no politician; but even a schoolboy could see the jus¬ 
tice of some of the principles, on the ground of which the country had 
recourse to arms. The colonies had arrived at the age of manhood. 
They were fully competent to govern themselves, and they demanded 
their freedom, or, at least, a just representation in the national legislature. 
For a power three thousand miles distant to claim a right to make laws 
to bind us in all cases whatever, and we to have no voice in that legisla¬ 
tion, this, it seemed, was a principle to which two millions of freemen 
ought not tamely to submit. And as all petitions and remonstrances 
availed nothing, and as the British government, instead of the charter of 
our liberties and rights, sent her fleets and armies to enforce her arbi¬ 
trary claims, the colonies had no alternative but slavery or war. Appeal¬ 
ing to Almighty God for the justice of their cause, they chose the latter. 
Whether I approved the motives that led me into the service, is another 
question, which I shall presently notice. 

In the summer of 1781, the ship Hannah, a very rich prize, was cap¬ 
tured, and brought into the port of New London. But in this case it 
was far worse than in common lottery-gambling, for it followed that there 
were thousands of fearful blanks to this one prize. It infatuated great 
numbers of young men, who flocked on board our private armed ships, 
fancying the same success would attend their adventures; but no such 
prize was ever after brought into that port. But New London became 
such a nest of privateers, that the English determined on its destruction. 
They sent an armament and laid it in ashes, took Fort Griswold, on the 
Groton side of the river, and, with savage cruelty, put the garrison to the 
sword, after they had surrendered. Another mighty blank to this prize, 
was, that our privateers so swarmed on the ocean, that the British cruisers, 
who were everywhere in pursuit of them, soon filled their prisons at New 
York to overflowing, with captured American seamen. 

Among these deluded and infatuated youth, I was one. I entered a 
volunteer on board a new brig, called the Fair American, built on purpose 
to prey upon the British commerce. She mounted sixteen carriage guns, 
and was manned with a crew, whose numbers exceeded what was really 
her complement. The quarter-deck, tops, and long-boat, were crowded 
with musketry, so that in action she was a complete flame of fire. 

(195) 



THE OLD JERSEY CAPTIVE. 


196 

We had not been long at sea, before we discovered and gave chase to 
an English brig, as long as ours, and, in appearance, mounting as many 
guns. As we approached her, she saluted us with her stern-chasers, but 
after exchanging a few shots, we ran directly alongside, as near as we 
could, and not get entangled in her top-hamper, and with one salute of 
all the fire we could display, put her to silence. And, thanks be to God, 
no lives were lost. 

I, with others, went on board, to man the prize, and take her into port. 
But the prize-master disobeyed orders. His orders were, not to approach 
the American coast till he had reached the longitude of New Bedford, 
and then to haul up to the northward, and, with a press of sail, to make 
for that port—but he aimed to make land on the back of Long Island: 
the consequence was, we were captured on the 27th of August, by the 
Solebay frigate, and safely stowed away in the old Jersey prison ship, at 
New York. 

This was an old sixty-four gun-ship, which, through age, had become 
unfit for further actual service. She was stripped of every spar, and all 
her rigging. After a battle with a French fleet, her lion figure-head was 
taken away, to repair another ship; no appearance of ornament was left, 
and nothing remained but an old, unsightly, rotten hulk. Her dark and 
filthy external appearance, perfectly corresponded with the death and 
despair that reigned within, and nothing could be more foreign from 
truth than to paint her with colors flying, or any circumstance or appen¬ 
dage to please the eye. She was moored about three-quarters of a mile 
to the eastward of Brooklyn Ferry, near a tide-mill on the Long Island 
shore. The nearest distance to land was about twenty rods. And, 
doubtless, no other ship in the British navy ever proved the means of the 
destruction of so many human beings. It is computed that no less than 
eleven thousand American seamen perished in her. But after it was 
known that it was next to certain death to confine a prisoner here, the 
inhumanity and wickedness of doing it was about the same as if lie had 
been taken into the city, and deliberately shot in some public square. Once 
or twice, by the order of a stranger on the quarter-deck, a bag of apples 
was hurled promiscuously into the midst of hundreds of prisoners crowded 
together as thick as they could stand, and life and limbs were endangered 
by the scramble. This, instead of compassion, was a cruel sport. WheD 
I saw it about to commence, I fled to the most distant part of the ship. 

On the commencement of the first evening, we were driven down to 
darkness between decks, secured by iron gratings and an armed soldiery 
and a scene of horror, which baffles all description, presented itself. On 
every side wretched, desponding shapes of men could be seen. Around 
the well-room, an armed guard were forcing up the prisoners to the 
winches, to clear the ship of water, and prevent her sinking, and little 
else could be heard but a roar of mutual execrations, reproaches, and 
insults. During this operation, there was a small dim light admitted be¬ 
low, but it served to make darkness more visible, and horror more terrific. 

When I first became an inmate of this abode of suffering, despair 
and death, there were about four hundred prisoners on board, but in a 
short time they amounted to twelve hundred. And, in proportion to our 
numbers, the mortality increased. All the most deadly diseases were 
pressed into the service of the King of Terrors, but his prime ministers 
were dysentery, smallpox, and yellow fever. There were two hospital- 
ships near to the Old Jersey, but these were soon so crowded with the 
sick, that they could receive no more. The consequence was, that the 


THE BRUTAL SENTRY. 


197 

diseased and the healthy were mingled together in the main ship. In a 
short time we had two hundred, or more, sick and dying, lodged in the 
forepart of the lower gun-deck, where all the prisoners were confined 
at night. Utter derangement was a common symptom of yellow fever, 
and to increase the horror of the darkness that shrouded us, (for we 
were allowed no light between decks,) the voice of warning would be 
heard, “Take heed to yourselves. There is a madman stalking through 
the ship with a knife in his hand!” I sometimes found the man a corpse 
in the morning, by whose side I laid myself down at night. At another 
time he would become deranged, and attempt, in darkness, to rise and 
stumble over the bodies that everywhere covered the deck. In this case. 
I had to hold him in his place by main strength. In spite of my efforts 
he would sometimes rise, and then I had to close in with him, trip up his 
heels, and lay him again upon the deck. While so many were sick with 
raging fever, there was a loud cry for water, but none could be had, ex¬ 
cept on the upper deck, and but one allowed to ascend at a time. The 
suffering, then, from the rage of thirst during the night, was very great : 
nor was it at all times safe to attempt to go up. Provoked by the continual 
cry for leave to ascend, when there was already one on deck, the sentry 
would push them back with his bayonet. By one of these thrusts, which 
was more spiteful and violent than common, I had a narrow escape of 
my life. In the morning the hatchways were thrown open, and we were 
allowed to ascend, all at once, and remain on the upper-deck during the 
day. But the first object that met our view in the morning, was an appal¬ 
ling spectacle—a boat loaded with dead bodies, conveying them to the 
Long Island shore, where they were very slightly covered with sand. 1 
sometimes used to stand to count the number of times the shovel was 
filled with sand to cover a dead body; and certain I am that a few high 
tides, or torrents of rain, must have disinterred them. And had they noi 
been removed, I should suppose the shore, even now, would be covered 
with huge piles of the bones of American seamen. There were, proba¬ 
bly, four hundred on board who had never had the smallpox—some, per¬ 
haps, might have been saved by inoculation. 

Now and then an American physician was brought in as a captive, but 
if he could obtain his parole, he left the ship; nor could we much blame 
him for this—for his own death was next to certain, and his success in 
saving others by medicine, in our situation, was small. I remember only 
two American physicians who tarried on board a few days. No Englisn 
physician, or any one from the city, ever, to my knowledge, came near us. 
There were thirteen of the crew to which I belonged; but in a short 
time all but three or four were dead. The most healthy and vigorous 
were first seized with the fever, and died in a few hours. For them, 
there seemed to be no mercy. My constitution was less muscular and 
plethoric, and I escaped the fever longer than any of the thirteen, except 
one, and the first onset was less violent. 

There is one palliating circumstance, as to the inhumanity of the Brit¬ 
ish, which ought to be mentioned. The prisoners were furnished with 
buckets and brushes to cleanse the ship, and with vinegar to sprinkle her 
inside. But their indolence and despair were such, that they would not 
use them, or but rarely. And, indeed, at this time, the encouragement 
to do it was small. For the whole ship, from the keel to the tafferel, was 
equally affected, and contained pestilence sufficient to desolate a world— 
disease and death were wrought into her very timbers. At the time I 
left, it is to be presumed a more filthy, contagious, and deadly abode for 


THE OLD JERSEY CAPTIVE. 


198 

human beings never existed among a Christianized people. It fell but 
little short of the Black Hole at Calcutta. Death was more lingering, 
but almost equally certain. 

The lower hold and the orlop-deck were such a terror, that no man 
would venture down into them. Humanity would have dictated a more 
merciful treatment to a band of pirates, who had been condemned, and were 
only awaiting the gibbet, than to have sent them here. But, in the view of 
the English, we were rebels and traitors. Our water was good, could 
we have had enough of it; our bread was bad in the superlative degree. 
1 do not recollect seeing any which was not full of living vermin; but 
eat it, worms and all, we must, or starve. The prisoners had laws and 
regulations among themselves. In severity they were like the laws of 
Draco—woe to him that dared to trample them under foot. A secret, pre¬ 
judicial to a prisoner, revealed to the guard, was death. Captain Young, 
of Boston, concealed himself in a large chest, belonging to a sailor going 
to be exchanged, and was carried on board the cartel, and we considered 
bis escape as certain; but the secret leaked out, and he was brought 
back; and one Spicer, of Providence, being suspected as the traitor, the 
enraged prisoners were about to take his life. His head was drawn back, 
and the knife raised to cut his throat; but, having obtained a hint of what 
was going on below, the guard at this instant rushed down, and rescued 
the man. Of his guilt, at the time, there was to me, at least, no con¬ 
vincing evidence. It is a pleasure now to reflect that I had no hand in 
the outrage. 

If there was any principle among the prisoners that could not be shaken, 
it was the love of their country. I knew no one to be seduced into the 
British service. They attempted to force one of our prize brig’s crew 
into the navy; but he chose rather to die than perform any duty, and he 
was again restored to the prison ship. Another rule, the violation of 
which would expose the offender to great danger, was, not to touch the 
provisions belonging to another mess. This was a common cause, and 
if any one complained that he was robbed, it produced an excitement of 
no little terror. 

As to religion, I do not remember of beholding any trace of it in the 
ship. I saw no Bible—heard no prayer—no religious conversation—no 
clergyman visited us, though no set of afflicted and dying men more 
needed the light and consolations of religion. But the Bethel flag had 
not yet waved over any ship. I know not that God’s name was ever 
mentioned, unless it was in profaneness and blasphemy; but as every 
man had almost the certain prospect of death before him, no doubt there 
were more or less who, in their own minds, like myself, had some serious 
thoughts of their accountability, of a future state, and of a judgment to 
come; but, as to the main body, it seemed that when they most needed 
religion, they treated it with the greatest contempt. 

While on board, almost every thought was occupied to invent some 
plan of escape; but day after day passed, and none presented that I dared 
to put in execution. But. the time had now come when I must be deliv¬ 
ered from the ship or die. It could not be delayed even a few days longer; 
but no plan could I think of that offered a gleam of hope. If I did escape 
with my life, I could see no way for it but by a miracle. If I continued 
on board a few days, or even hours longer, the prospect was certain death; 
for I was now seized with the yellow fever, and should unavoidably take 
the natural smallpox with it; and who does not know that I could not 
survive the operation of both these diseases at once? I had never 


THE STRATAGEM. 


199 

experienced the latter disease in any way, and it was now beginning to 
rage on board the Old Jersey, and none could be removed. The hospital- 
ships being already full of the sick, the pox was nearly ripe in the pus¬ 
tules of some; and I not only slept near them, but assisted in nursing 
those who had the symptoms most violently. In a very short time my 
doom must have been settled, had I remained in the ship. 

The arrival of a cartel, and my being exchanged, would not help the 
matter, but render my death the more sure. When a list of the names 
of the prisoners was called for, on board the frigate by which we were 
captured, I stepped up and gave in my name first, supposing that, in case 
of an exchange, I should be the sooner favored with this privilege. And 
the fact, indeed, was, that no exchanges took place but from the port of 
New London. And former exchanges had left me first on the roll of 
captives from this port; and I dreaded nothing more than the arrival of 
a cartel, for numbers would be put on board and sent home from the 
hospital-ships, whose flesh was ready to fall from their bones in this 
dreadful disease; and, indeed, I had no sooner made my escape than a 
cartel did arrive, and such dying men were actually crowded into it; and 
it was evidently the policy of the English to return, for sound and healthy 
men sent from our prisons, such Americans as had just the breath of life 
in them, and were sure to die before they reached home. The guard 
were wont to tell a man while in health, “You have not been here long 
enough—you are too well to be exchanged.” There was yet one more 
conceivable method of getting from the ship, and that was, the next night 
to steal down through a gun-port, which we had managed to open when 
we pleased, unbeknown to the guard, and swim ashore. But this was a 
most forlorn hope; for I was under the operation of the yellow fever, 
and but just able to walk, and when well I could never swim ten rods, 
and would now have at least twenty to swim. Beside, when in the water, 
there was almost a certainty I should be discovered by the guard and shot, 
as others had been. In this situation what wisdom, or what finite power 
could save me ? If I tarried on board, I must perish! If put on board the 
cartel, every hour expected, I must perish! If I attempted to swim 
away, I must be lost! 

Mr. Emery, the sailing-master, was just now going ashore after water. 
Without really considering what I said, and without the least expectation 
of success, I thus addressed him, “ Mr. Emery, may I go on shore with 
you after water ?” My lips seemed to move almost involuntarily, for no 
such thing to my knowledge had ever been granted to such a prisoner. 
To the surprise and astonishment of all that heard him, he replied, “ Yes, 
with all my heart.” I then descended immediately into the boat, which 
was in waiting for him. But the prisoners came to the ship’s side and 
queried, “ What is that sick man going on shore for ?” And the British 
sailors endeavored to dissuade me from it, but never was counsel so little 
regarded as theirs, and to put them all to silence I again ascended on 
board ; but even this was an interposition of a kind Providence, for I had 
neglected to take my great-coat, without which I must have perished in 
cold and storms. But I now put it on, and waited for the sailing-master, 
meaning to step down again into the boat just before him, which I did, 
and turned my face away, that I might not be recognised, and another 
attempt be made to prevent my going. The boat was pushed off, and we 
were soon clear of the ship. I took an oar, and attempted to row, but 
an English sailor took it from me, and very kindly said, “ Give me that 
oar, you are not able to use it; you are too unwell.” I resigned it, and 


200 


THE OLD JERSEY CAPTIVE. 


gave up myself to the most intense thought upon my situation. I had 
commenced the execution of a plan, in which, if I failed, my life was 
gone ; but if I succeeded, it was possible I might live. I looked back to 
the black and unsightly old ship, as an object of the greatest horror. 
u Am I to escape, or return there and perish,” was with me the all-ab¬ 
sorbing question. And now we had ascended the creek, and arrived at 
the spring where the casks were to be filled, and I proposed to the sailors 
to go in quest of apples. I had before told them that this was my object 
in coming on shore, but they chose to defer it till the boat was loaded ; 
and they did not exact any labor of me. This was just as I would have 
it. I thought I could do quite as well without their company as with it. 

The sailing-master, passing by me, very kindly remarked, “ The fresh 
air will be of service to you.” This emboldened me to ask leave to as¬ 
cend the bank, a slope of about forty-five degrees and thirty feet in height, 
terminating in a plain of considerable extent, and to call at a house near 
by for some refreshment. He said, u Go, but take care and not be out 
of the way.” I replied, “ My state of health was such that there was 
nothing to fear on that score.” But here, I confess, I violated a princi¬ 
ple of honor for which I could not then, nor can I now entirely excuse 
myself. I feel a degree of conscious meanness for treating a man thus, 
who put confidence in me, and treated me in such a manner as showed 
he was a gentleman of sensibility and kindness. But the love of life was 
my temptation ; but this principle is always too great, when it tempts us 
to violate any principle of moral rectitude and honor. And should I even 
now learn that my escape involved him in any trouble, it would be a 
matter of deep regret. Not long after my arrival at home, I sent him my 
apology for what I did, by a British officer, who was exchanged, and going 
directly to New York. 

When the boat returned, the inquiry was made by the prisoners, (as 1 
was afterward informed,) “ Where is the sick man that went with you ?” 
The English sailors consoled themselves with this reply, “ Ah, he is safe 
enough, he will never live to go a mile.” They did not know what the 
Sovereign of life and death could enable a sick man to do. Intent on the 
business of escape, I surveyed the landscape all around. I discovered 
at the distance of a half a mile, what appeared to be a dense swamp of 
young maples and other bushes. On this I fixed as my hiding-place ; 
but how should I get to it without being discovered and apprehended be¬ 
fore I could reach it? I had reason to think the boat’s crew would keep 
an eye upon me; and people were to be seen at a distance in almost 
every direction. But there was an orchard which extended a good way 
toward the swamp, and while I wandered from tree to tree, in this orchard, 
I should not be suspected of anything more than searching after fruit. 
But at my first entrance into it I found a soldier on sentry, and I had to 
find out what his business was, and soon discovered he had nothing to do 
with me, but only to guard a heap of apples; and I now gradually worked 
myself off to the end of the orchard next to the swamp, and, looking round 
on every side, I saw no person from whom I might apprehend immediate 
danger. 

The boat’s crew being yet at work under the bank of the creek, and 
out of sight, I stepped off deliberately, (for I was unable to run, and had 
I been able, it would have tended to excite suspicion in any one that might 
have seen me, even at a distance,) and having forded the creek once or 
twice, I reached the swamp in safety. I soon found a place which seemed 
to have been formed by nature for concealment. A huge log, twenty 


ESCAPE. 


201 

feet in length, having laid there for many years, was spread over, on both 
sides, with such a dense covering of green running briers as to be imper¬ 
vious to the eye. Lifting up this covering at one end, I crept in close 
by the log, and rested comfortably and securely, for I was well defended 
from the north-east storm, which soon commenced. 

When the complete darkness of the night had set in, and while rain¬ 
ing in torrents, I began to feel my way out. And though but just able 
to walk, and though often thrown all along into the water, by my clothes 
getting entangled with the bushes, yet I reached the dry land, and en¬ 
deavored to shape my course for the east end of Long Island. In this 1 
was assisted by finding how New York bore from me, by the sound of 
ship-bells, and the din of labor and activity, even at that late time of night. 
Here let me remark, how easy it is with God to cause men to do good, 
when they intend no such thing. Without any great-coat, it would have 
been scarcely possible to have survived the tempest of rain and cold of 
this night in the month of October. But had not the prisoners endeavored 
to prevent my going in the boat and caused me to ascend again into 
the ship, I should have left it behind. Little did I then think what good 
heaven meant to bestow on me, by the trouble they then gave me. 

I soon fell into a road that seemed to lead the right way, and when, 
during the night, I perceived I was about to meet any one, my constant 
plan was to retire to a small distance from the path, and roll myself up as 
well as I could to resemble a small bunch of bushes, or fern. By this 
expedient I was often saved from recapture. This road soon brought me 
into a quiet, populous village, which was resounding with drums and fifes, 
and full of soldiers; but, in great mercy to me, it rained in torrents, so l 
passed through, in the midst of the street, in safety. Being sick and greatly 
exhausted by the adventures of the day and night, it now became abso¬ 
lutely necessary to seek a place of rest, and a barn to me was now the 
only place in which I dared to enter. I stepped up to the door, of what 
I took to be such a building, and was just about to open it, when my eye 
was arrested by a white streak on the threshold, which I found to be the 
light reflected from a candle, and I heard human voices within. But 
human voices were now to me the object of the greatest terror, and I fled 
with all the speed I possessed. Coming to another barn, I discovered a 
high stack of hay in the yard, covered with a Dutch cap: I ascended and 
sunk myself down deep in the hay, supposing I had found a most com¬ 
fortable retreat. But how miserably was I deceived! The weather had 
now cleared up, and the wind blew strong and cold from the north-west, 
and the hay was nothing but coarse sedge, and the wind passed into it 
and reached me as if I had no protection from it. I had not a dry thread 
in my clothes, and my sufferings from this time, to about eleven o’clock 
the next day, were great—too great even for health, but I had to encoun¬ 
ter them under the operation of a malignant fever, which would have con¬ 
fined me to my room, if not to my bed, had I been at home. 

A young woman came into the yard and milked a cow, just at the foot 
of the tower where I lay concealed: but I had no eye to pity, or kind 
hand to alleviate my distress. This brought home, with all the tender 
charities of mother, sister, and brothers, to my recollection, witli a sensi¬ 
bility I coul^l feel, but cannot describe. The day was clear and grew 
more moderate, and the coast being clear, also, I left my cold and wretched 
retreat, and deliberately made oft' for the woods, at the distance of half 
a mile. Before I left the ship I had seen prisoners who had escaped, 
retaken and carried back. But their mistake was/ they would go two, 01 


202 


THE OLD JERSEY CAPTIVE. 


more, in company. But I would have no companion, it would excite sus¬ 
picion, and render concealment more difficult, and, under the kind pro¬ 
vidence of God, I chose to be my own counselor, and to have none to 
fall out with on the way, as to what course we should pursue. 

Having entered the woods, I found a small, but deep, dry hollow, clear 
of brush in the center, though surrounded with a thicket on every side. 
Into this the sun shone with a most delightful warmth. Here I stripped 
myself naked, and spread out my clothes to dry. Being too impatient of 
delay, I regained the road just as the sun was setting, but it came near 
proving fatal; for I discovered, just ahead, two light dragoons coming down 
upon me. At first it seemed escape was impossible. But that God, who 
gave me a quickness of thought in expedients, that seemed to go quite 
beyond myself, was present with his kind aid. I now happened to be 
near a small cottage, and a cornfield adjoining the road, I feigned my¬ 
self to be the man of that cottage, the owner of that cornfield. And 
getting over the fence, I went about the field, deliberately picking up the 
ears of corn that had fallen down, and righting up the cap-sheaf of a stack 
of stalks. The dragoons came nigh, eyed me carefully, though I affected 
to take no notice of them, and passed on. They were probably in search 
of me. 

I had lost my hat overboard, when in the Old Jersey, and had hence¬ 
forward to cover my head with a handkerchief. I deemed it a calamity at the 
time, but, as an act of Providence, the mystery now began to be unfolded. 
Having no hat, but a handkerchief about my head, helped to deceive the 
dragoons, and cause them to think I was the cottager, who owned the 
corn-field. To lie concealed during the day, and to travel at night, was 
my practice, till I had got far toward the east end of the island. For 
several days I had not taken any nourishment, but water and apples. I 
found late pears, and was pleased with their taste, but they operated as an 
emetic, quicker than ipecacuanha. A subacid apple sat well on my stomach, 
and was very refreshing, though had I been sick at home, with the same 
disease, I should probably have been denied this favor. Indeed, from 
what I experienced in the free use of water, ripe fruit, unfermented 
cider, found at the presses, etc., I was led to suspect, that a great deal of 
the kind nursing of persons in fever, was an unnecessary and cruel kind 
of self-denial. But I supposed nature would sink without some other kind 
of aliment. But the first attempt to act upon this principle would have 
proved fatal, had it not been for a kind providential interference. 

Late in the evening, I stepped up to a house on the road, and lifted 
my hand to rap, but the door folded inward, and evaded my stroke, and 
a lady appeared with a light in her hand. I besought of her a draught 
of milk: she replied, “ that there was then a guard of soldiers in the 
house, and they had consumed it all.” The business of this guard was 
to keep a look-out toward the Long Island sound, and their sentries were 
on the opposite side of the house. Had I rapped and been met by one 
of this guard, instead of the lady, what would have been the result? 
And by whose arrangement did the incident so happen that I escaped? 
Pursuing my journey, I came to a place where the road parted. One 
branch turned off through a lofty grove of wood; the other ascended a 
gentle rise toward a house near by. I knew not which to take; but that 
leading toward the house best suited my general course. But coming up 
near the house, there issued forth from the out-buildings a greater ken¬ 
nel of dogs than I had ever before seen, and assaulted me with a furious 
yelling. I stopped short, drew up my hands as far as I could out of their 


PERILOUS POSITION. 


203 

reach, and stood still. They snapped at me very spitefully, with their 
jaws within a few inches of my body. And now what should I do? 
To have attacked them, or fled precipitately, would have been instant 
destruction. I concluded to take no notice of them, but to turn about 
gently and take the other road, as if there was no such creature in the 
world as a dog. I did so, and they followed me for about twenty rods, 
snapping at me, and seeming to say, “You shall not escape; we will have 
a taste of your blood.” And in this design, there seemed to be a perfect 
union, from the great bow-wow down to the yelping spaniel. But at last 
they all ceased to roar, bid me a good night and disappeared. 

Had I ventured into the habitations of men, instead of those of the 
horned ox, my escape had been impossible. Soon after escaping the 
fury of the dogs, in this peaceful abode, I took up my lodgings for the 
night. A man coming into it in the morning, I made bold to slide down 
from the hay-loft; and, after making some apology for trespassing upon 
his premises, I asked him if it was probable I could get some refresh¬ 
ment in the house. He seemed to think I could. I then entered the 
house, and stated my wants; but as I did not design to be a mean, dis¬ 
honest beggar, first get what I wanted, and then say I had nothing to pay, 
or sneak off, and say nothing about pay, I told the family I had but 
three coppers with me, so that if they gave me meat or drink, it must be 
done merely on the score of charity. But the woman seemed to be 
thinking more about providing something for the relief of a wretched 
sufferer, as I must have appeared to her, than about money. But the old 
man was troublesome with his questions. He said it was but a few days 
ago, two men called at his house, and told a story, which was found to be 
all false; and at last he observed, outright, “ I believe thee also is a 
rogue”—but the woman would, now and then, as he pressed hard upon 
me, check him, and say, “ Do let him alone.” She had no questions to 
ask—all she wanted was to feed me; and, had it not been for her, I 
know not what the crabbed old man would have done with me. 

After I had taken my refreshment, I said to the old man, “ I thank you 
for your kindness—here are three coppers, all I have to carry me a long 
journey.” He did not take them, but said, u You may give them to that 
little girl.” She took them; but if she was illiberal and mean, the old 
man made her so. I left the house, and going a short distance, a spacious 
plain opened to my view; and on it, by the tents I saw, I concluded there 
was an encampment of soldiers. I, therefore, turned aside into the 
field, ascended a stack of rye, covered with a Dutch cap, and here I 
remained all the day, it being very stormy; but in the evening I looked 
out from my hiding-place, and behold, a most lovely moonshine had suc¬ 
ceeded the storm. The tents had all disappeared, and I took up my 
journey over the plain. Some time in the latter part of the night, I 
reached the east end of it, and saw before me a number of buildings, 
though before this, I had not seen any on the plain. But no sooner had 
I come up to the first house, than I was drawn into a scene of the utmost 
peril. In the midst of the road there was a blacksmith’s shop; on the 
north side there was a lane forming a right-angle with the road, and 
leading up to a house about twelve rods from it. To the westward of the 
house, about eight rods distant, stood the barn, and a lane leading from 
the house to it; and the square, three sides of which were formed by the 
road aud these two lanes, was the garden; and, in the corner of this 
garden, near to the house, I discovered a number of beehives, and I 
coveted some of the honey. I went first up to the house, and, though 


THE OLD JERSEY CAPTIVE. 


204 

the door was open, I saw no light, and heard no noise. But I deemed it 
prudent not to climb over the fence, just at the door of the house, to get 
at the bees, but to take the lane down to the barn, and there to get into 
the garden, and come up, under cover of the fence, to the bee-house. 
This I did not then call stealing, for I was in an enemy’s land, and might 
make prize of whatever I could lay my hand upon. 

Having just stepped into the barn-yard, and not suspecting the least 
danger, I saw a great number of horses tied all around the yard, with all 
their manes and docks cut in uniform. I stood motionless for a moment, 
and began to say to myself, “What does this mean? Can one farmer 
own so many horses?” But before the thought was finished, and as 
unexpected as a flash of lightning in a clear day, a dragoon coming out 
of the barn, with his burnished steel glittering in the bright rays of the 
moon, stepped up to me, and challenged, “Who comes there?” I 
answered, “ A friend.” But before he could say to whom, a plan of 
escape must be formed, and put in execution. It was formed, and suc¬ 
ceeded. Before he could ask the second question, I called out, as if 1 
were angry, “Where is the well? I want to get some water!” Taking 
me, from this seemingly honest and fearless query, to be one of the party, 
he showed me the well, and I went to it deliberately, drew water, and 
escaped out of his hands. The fact was, as I soon found, this was a 
detachment of horse and foot going out on the island for forage, to be 
conveyed to the army at New York, and, doubtless, he supposed me to be 
a person, a wagoner, perhaps, attached to it. And here again I found 
the great advantage of losing my hat. Having a handkerchief tied about 
my head, helped me in the deception. 

After leaving the well, I went down the lane into the road, near the 
blacksmith’s shop. At this moment four of the party came out from 
behind the opposite side of the shop, in full view, at the distance of about 
three rods from me. I stood motionless, and said to myself, “ All is now 
lost.” But their attention was taken up with a small dog, with which 
they were sporting. But as they did not come at once, and seize me in 
the brightness of the moonlight, I began again to conceive hope, and 
edged away to the fence, and rolled through between the two lower rails. 
Soon afterward the men said, “ Let us go to the barn, and turn in,” and 
immediately disappeared. Their sporting with the dog, in itself, was a 
trifling circumstance, but to me it was a great event. It saved my life— 
to me, in the hour of despair, it brought deliverance. 

Stretching along as close as I could lie to the lower rail of the fence, 
I took a little time to survey my situation on all sides, and to discover, 
if I could, any opening for escape. If I attempted to save myself by 
going into the open field, I must be discovered by the sentries, and picked 
up by a dragoon. If I remained where I was, it would soon be daylight, 
and I could not be mistaken for one of the party. About thirty rods 
ahead, I discovered a large house, illuminated from the ground-floor to the 
garret. This, I was sure, must be the main bivouac of both infantry and 
horse, and wagons were in numbers passing on to this house. At last I 
hit upon this plan, when another wagon should pass, I would rise, and 
lay hold of it behind, and let it carry me forward into the midst of the 
party, and they would suppose me to belong to it. The driver sitting 
under cover, forward, could not be able to see me. When the next 
wagon passed, I attempted to get hold of it, but could not overtake it, 
and was left alone in the middle of the road, and considerably advanced 
toward the house just mentioned as the general rendezvous. * And now, 


THE DRAGOON. 


205 

as no other mode of escape offered, I resolved to walk boldly and 
leisurely into and through the midst of the throng of men and horses, 
and wagons and sentries, and pass away if I could. The plan suc¬ 
ceeded—I passed fearlessly, with great deliberation, erect and firm, with¬ 
out any shyness, through the midst of them. Some eyed me carefully, 
yet no one said, “ Who art thou?”—and I was soon out of sight, and hid 
in a dense prim-bush fence, lest a suspicion should arise that a strange 
man had passed, and a dragoon should pursue me. 

Twenty miles further to the eastward, I narrowly escaped falling again 
into the hands of the same party. Had I not, without any knowledge or 
intention of my own, happened to take another road, I should have met 
them in full march on their return; and, being in the day-time, escape 
would have been next to impossible. As it was, my road brought me 
on to the ground where, the night before, they had chosen to bivouac, and 
I found their fires still burning. After leaving my hiding-place in the 
prim fence, I soon found myself in a large orchard, in quest of fruit. I 
had examined nearly every tree, and found none. But just as 1 was 
about to give up the search, I lit upon a tree where the ground was 
covered with the fairest and richest species of apple I ever tasted. 
They refreshed me as if they had been gathered from paradise, having 
neither eaten nor drank anything for a considerable time. How all the 
other fruit in the orchard should have been gathered in, and the produce 
of this uncommonly excellent tree left, struck me as a mystery. It was 
no miracle, but it was a mercy to a wretched sufferer, then burning up 
with fever and thirst. I now sought for and took up my lodgings in the 
birth-place of my Saviour. 

Prosecuting my journey on a succeeding evening, I happened to lie 
opposite to a house standing a little out of the road. Before I was aware 
of the danger, a dragoon met me, and stopped so near, I could have put 
my hand on his holsters. Now, thought I to myself, “ I am taken”—but 
what a blessed thing it was I lost my hat! The old dirty handkerchief 
upon my head saved me again. From this appearance, taking me to 
be the master of the house near by, he says, “Have you any cider?” 
“No, sir,” was my reply, “but we expect to make next week — call 
then, and we shall be glad to treat you.” This said, we each went his 
own way. 

Commencing my journey at another time, early in the evening, I was 
accosted by a man of stern appearance and address, standing on the 
door-step. He wished to know whence I came, and where bound. I 
told him I had just sailed out of New York, bound to Augustine in 
Florida, and was driven ashore by an American privateer, a little to the 
eastward of Sandy Hook, and was making my way down to Huntington, 
where I belonged. “What?” says he, “you belong to an American 
privateer? I wonder you have not been taken up before.” By this it 
seems, he would have apprehended me had he known what I was. He 
was, no doubt, a Long Island tory. But I replied, “ Sir, you mistake me, 
I did not say I belonged, or had belonged, to an American privateer. I 
meant to say I belonged to an English vessel out of New York, and had 
been driven ashore by such a privateer.” Then, without further cere¬ 
mony, I passed on, and he did not attempt to stop me. And now again 
I sought rest and concealment, as it grew late in the evening, and again 
I found it in a barn. But I had now, by exposure, contracted a violent 
cough, and could not suppress it, though deep sunk in a hay-mow. The 
owner coming into the barn, in the morning, heard me, but he offered 


206 


THE OLD JERSEY CAPTIVE. 


me no disturbance, and I hoped it would have been my peaceful retreat 
for the whole day. But some time after the man, who visited the barn, had 
left it, a number of children came up to it, and placed their hands against 
the door, and gave it a violent shaking, crying out, at the same time, 
“Come out, you runaway, you thief, you robber!” and then retreated with 
great precipitation. But I did not remove out of my bed, hoping they 
might not give me another such honorable salute. But it was not long 
before they appeared again, and cried out, “ Come out, you old rogue, 
you runaway, you thief! We know you are here, for daddy heard you 
cough,” and then retreated as before. And I retreated also, fearing 
some older children might honor me with a visit, and find out in very 
deed that I was a runaway. 

After I had experienced so many narrow escapes, and had now passed, 
as I supposed, and as proved to be the fact, beyond all further danger 
from foraging parties, scouts, and patrol of a military character; and 
though the fever was still upon me, yet it seemed rather to abate than to 
be aggravated by all the exposure, cold, storms, fatigues, fears, anxieties 
and privations I endured; I inferred, with great confidence, that it was 
the design of Almighty God that I should yet again see home; and enter¬ 
ing a wood, where no human eye could see me, I fell upon my knees, 
and, looking up to Heaven, I attributed to Him all my deliverances, and 
all the understanding, assistance and strength by which I had been sus¬ 
tained ; and besought the continuance of his mercy to extricate me from 
all remaining danger and sufferings, and to complete my deliverance. I 
arose, and now went forward, more than ever, under a sense of the Divine 
goodness and protection. 

I come now to a day in which various and interesting incidents oc¬ 
curred. I now ventured to travel in open daylight, and no longer to ask 
protection from the sable honors of an absent sun. Commencing my 
journey early in the morning, I came to a large and respectable dwell¬ 
ing-house, and thinking it time to seek something to nourish my feeble 
frame, for appetite I had scarce any, I entered it. Neatness, wealth and 
plenty seemed to reside there. Among the inmates of it, a decent 
woman, who appeared to be the mistress of the family, and a tailor, who 
was mounted upon a large table, and plying his occupation, were all that 
attracted my notice. To the lady I expressed my wants, telling her, at 
the same time, which was my invariable practice, if she could impart to 
me a morsel, it must be a mere act of charity, giving and hoping to 
receive nothing again. For poverty was a companion of which I could 
not rid myself. She made no objections, asked no questions, but 
promptly furnished me with a dish of light food I desired. Expressing 
my obligations to her, I rose to depart. But, going round through another 
room, she met me in the front entry, placed a hat upon my head, put an 
apple-pie in my hand, and said, “ You will want this before you get 
through the woods.” I opened my mouth to give vent to the greatful 
feelings with which my heart was filled, but she would not tarry to hear 
a word, but instantly vanished out of my sight. The mystery of her con¬ 
duct, as I suppose, was this: she, her family and property, were under 
British government. She was, doubtless, well satisfied that I was a 
prisoner escaping from the hands of the English; and if she granted me 
any protection or succor, knowing me to be such, it might cost the family 
the confiscation of all their estate. She did not, therefore, wish to ask 
me any questions, or hear me explain who I was, within hearing of that 
tailor. He might turn out to be a dangerous informer. I then departed; 


DESPAIR AND STARVATION. 


207 

but this mark of kindness was more than I could well bear, and, as I 
went on for some rods, the tears flowed copiously. 

By and by I began to recollect and consider what the lady meant by 
the woods. I supposed it possible there might be a forest four or five 
miles in length, through which I might pass; of the real fact I had not 
the least anticipation. But very soon I came to the woods, and found a 
narrow road, of deep, loose sand, leading through them. The bushes on 
both sides, grew hard up to the wagon-ruts, and there was not a step of a 
side-walk of more solid ground, and the traveling was very laborious. 
But I pressed on with what strength I had, and, after a few miles, sup¬ 
posed I was nearly through the wilderness, and began to look ahead for 
cleared land and human dwellings, but none appeared. After I had, with 
great labor and almost unsupportable distress, traveled a distance I deemed 
at least nine miles, I met two men pressing on in a direction opposite to 
my own. They seemed to be in a hurry, and anxious to know how far 
l had come in these woods. “ About nine miles,” said I; u how far have 
you come in them?” They replied, “ about the same distance,” and 
immediately pushed forward, asking me no other question. Then said I 
to myself, u Here I make my grave. My feet were swollen so that the 
tumefaction hung over the tops of my shoes for three-fourths of an inch, 
and 1 was about to seek out a favorable spot to lie down and rise no more. 
But at this instant, something seemed to whisper to me, “ Will it not be 
just as well, if you must die, to die standing and walking?” I could not 
say no, and resolved to walk on, till I fell down dead. And this whisper 
has been of great service to me in after-life, when I have been ready to 
sink in discouragement under difficulties and troubles, or opposition and 
persecution. When I say, I have been ready to sink under such trials, 
[ have recollected these woods, and said, “ Will it not be as well to die 
standing up, as lying down?” And thus I have taken courage, and gone 
forward, and the result has been as auspicious. 

The first house I came to, at the east end of these woods, I entered in 
quest of humanity and pity. But these virtues appeared not to be at home 
there. Everything without and within, denoted a situation happily above 
penury, or the trials, vexations, and griefs of poverty. A degree of ele¬ 
gance and neatness appeared. In the kitchen I discovered a number of 
fish just touched with salt, and hung up and dried. My feverish appetite 
fixed on a piece of one of these fish, as a rasher that might taste well. 
I besought the lady of the house, to give me a very small bit; but my 
request was not granted. I repeated it, again and again. But her denial 
was irrevocable. Now, thought I, I will try an experiment, and measure 
the hardness of your heart. So I stated to her my sickly, destitute con¬ 
dition; told her she might judge by my appearance, that I was overwhelmed 
with misfortune, and had been very unsuccessful at sea. I wished her 
to consider how she would be delighted, had she a brother, or a dear friend, 
suffering in a strange land, if any one should stretch out to him the hand 
of relief, minister to his necessities, wipe away his tears, and console his 
heart. Indeed, I suggested every thought and plea of which I was master, 
that could move a heart not made of steel. And what was it all for? 
For a piece of dried blue-fish, not more than two inches square! And 
did I succeed? No. All my entreaties were in vain; so without mur¬ 
muring, or casting on her any reflections, I took my leave. 

Passing on but a few rods, I entered another dwelling, and what renders 
the circumstance that took place, the more to be noticed is, it appeared 
to be a tavern. I expressed my wants to a lady who, I had no doubt, 


THE OLD JERSEY CAPTIVE. 


208 

was the mistress of the house. By the cheerfulness and good nature de¬ 
picted in her countenance, and her first movements, I knew my suit was 
granted, and I had nothing more to say, than to apprise her that I was 
penniless ; and if she afforded me any relief, she must do it hoping for 
nothing again. Now behold the contrast! In a few moments she placed 
on the table a bowl of bread and milk, the whole of one of those fish 
roasted, that I had begged for in vain, at the other house, and a mug of 
cider. And, says she, “ Sit down and eat.” But her mercy came near 
to cruelty in its consequences; for although I was aware of the danger, 
yet I indulged too freely. My fever was soon enraged to violence, and I 
was filled with alarm. 

It was now growing dark, and I went but a short distance further, and 
entered a house, and begged the privilege of lodging by the fire. My 
request was granted, and I sat down in silence, too sick and distressed to 
do or say anything. But I could see and hear. There was no one in the 
house, but the man and his wife. They appeared to be plain, open- 
hearted, honest people, who never had their minds elated with pride, nor 
their taste perverted by false refinement, or that education, which just 
unfits persons to be useful and happy in the common walks of life. 

Before it became late in the evening, the man took his Bible, and read 
a chapter, and that with a tone and air that induced me to think he believed 
it. He then arose and devoutly offered up his grateful acknowledgments 
and supplications to God, through the Mediator. By this time I began to 
think I had gone into a safe, as well as a hospitable retreat. They had 
before made many inquiries, not impertinent and captious, but such as 
indicated that they felt tenderly, and took an interest in my welfare; but 
they evidently obtained no satisfaction from my answers, for I was too 
weary and distressed, to take pains to form, or relate, anything like a con¬ 
sistent story. But they seemed as if they could not rest till they had 
drawn from me, the real truth, though they gave not the least hint, that 
might reproach me for the want of truth and honesty. At last I resolved 
I would treat them so no longer—I would throw off the mask, risk all 
consequences, and let them into the real secret of my condition—and said, 
u You have asked me many questions this evening, and I have told you 
nothing but falsehoods. Now hear the truth. I am a prisoner, making 
my escape from the Old Jersey, at New York. Of the horrors of this 
dreadful prison you may have been informed. There, after many suffer¬ 
ings, I was brought to have no prospect before me, but certain death. 
By a remarkable and unexpected interposition of Providence, I got on 
shore, and having had many hair-breadth escapes, I have reached this 
place, and am now lodged under your hospitable roof. I am loaded with 
disease, and am in torment from the thousands of vermin which are now 
devouring my flesh. I have dear and kind friends in Connecticut, and am 
now aiming to regain my native home. The kindest of mothers is now 
probably weeping for me, as having, ere this, perished in my captivity, 
never more expecting to see her child. Thus I have told you the real 
truth. I have put my life in your hands. Go and inform against me, and 
I shall be taken back to the prison ship, and death will be inevitable.” 
I ceased to speak, and all was profound silence. It took some time to 
recover themselves from a flood of tears, in which they were bathed. 
At last the kind and amiable woman said, “ Let us go and bake his 
clothes.” No sooner said, than the man seized a brand of fire and threw 
it into the oven. The woman provided a clean suit of clothes, to supply 
the place of mine, till they had purified them by fire. The work done, 


CAPTURED BY A PRIVATEER. 


209 

a clean bed was laid down, on which I was to rest; and rest I did, as in 
a new world; for I had got rid of a swarm of cannibals, who were without 
mercy eating me up alive! 

In the morning, I took my leave of this dear family, who had enchained 
and riveted my soul to them by their kindness, in esteem and gratitude, 
which have for fifty years suffered no abatement. I learned from them a 
lesson of humanity, I have ever remembered, and ever wished to imitate. 
The day was clear, and after traveling a short distance, I threw myself down 
on the sunny side of a stinted pitch-pine, upon a bed of warm sand. I 
rested as on a bed of down. 

In about a week after this, I found myself at Sag Harbor, at the east end 
of Long Island. Nor did the kind providence of God forsake me. Again 
I found humanity and pity in a public house. I was permitted to lie by 
a warm fire, (a great luxury, the weather having become cold,) while 
two others of my companions on board the same engine of perdition to 
American seamen, having made their escape, were denied this favor, and 
had to take lodgings in the barn. While lying on my bed of down, (the 
warm brick hearth,) the door of an adjoining room, where our host and 
landlady slept, being open, I heard her say, “ I could not consent that the 
other two should lodge in the house, but I pitied this young man.” But 
I could see no cause for this difference of feeling in this woman, but the 
agency of Him, who hath all hearts in his hand. In a few days an oppor¬ 
tunity of crossing the sound presented. A whale-boat, with a commission 
to make reprisals upon the enemy, came into the harbor. Her crew, as 
I supposed, were a set of honest, good farmers, who resided at Norwich, 
in Connecticut, where I was born, and knew my connections. They 
agreed to give me passage to New London. A sloop also came into the 
harbor, with a like commission, which belonged on the island. This boat 
and sloop made sail together, one bound to New London, the other to 
Saybrook. But the weather being very boisterous, the boat was in dan¬ 
ger; so we all went on board the sloop, and the boat was made fast to her 
by a tow-line. But at no great distance from Plumb Island, a privateer, 
which proved to be out of Stonington, pounced upon us; and, under the 
suspicion of our being illicit traders, carried us all into New London. 
And here a scene of wickedness was developed, of which I could not 
have supposed my honest friends had been capable. An agent had been 
sent to New York, had obtained a quantity of dry goods, and brought 
them to Sag Harbor. Here the cruising whale-boat was to receive and 
carry them to New London, where they would be libelled; and some of 
the crew would come into court, and give oath that they were taken from 
the enemy, by virtue of their commission. And thus a trade was carried 
on with the enemy to an infinite extent. These goods were put on board 
the sloop, when the boat was made fast to her. And when the privateer 
appeared, and we could not escape her, the captain of the sloop agreed 
to declare the goods were his, and that he had taken them as a lawful 
prize from the enemy. And the crew of the whale-boat, the purchasers 
and owners of the goods, were to swear they saw him do it. The goods 
being condemned, the captain of the sloop was then to act like an honest 
rogue, and to restore them to the crew of the boat. But after the goods 
were actually condemned, and the crew of the boat, the real owners, had 
in open court sworn, that the goods were his by lawful capture, the cap¬ 
tain of the sloop thought he had now a fair opportunity, to play on them 
a profitable trick. Accordingly, he refused to restore them, and went off 
with the goods, sloop and all, to Connecticut River. But the crew of the 
14 


THE OLD JERSEY CAPTIVE. 


210 

boat were not willing thus to quit all claim to the goods, though they had 
sworn they were not theirs, and contrived to have the sloop with the goods 
seized. And I, who knew the whole story, was sent for as a witness. 
And by my testimony, and that of one of the whale-boat’s crew, who had 
not testified before, that the goods were captured by the captain of the 
sloop, the real truth came to light, and both sloop and goods were con¬ 
demned ; so that the crew of the whale-boat ultimately obtained, not only 
their goods, but the sloop also, as an illicit trader. And thus the treachery 
of the captain, did not prove so gainful as he intended. He was taken in 
his own craftiness; an event so common, that it is a matter of wonder, 
that all rogues do not grow sick of their villainy. 

I had now traveled one hundred and fifty miles, and was safely landed 
at New London. And to me it was a great mercy, that we were cap¬ 
tured by the privateer out of Stonington; otherwise I should have been 
carried into Connecticut River, much further from home. But no sooner 
did I set my foot down in a land of safety, than I immediately sunk under 
the power of that disease, which had preyed upon me ever since I left 
the prison-ship. After arriving at New London, I could travel only about 
three miles, and all my strength failed, under the reviving power and 
rage of the fever. But in this, perhaps, the kind hand of woman had 
some agency. The lady at Sag Harbor, who pressed me in her pity, 
thought of my welfare after I should leave her house, and, unsolicited, 
gave me a meat-pie, and a bottle of cider. Though I had not much relish 
for the pie, yet my thirst tempted me to drink the liquid. I had before 
drank freely at the press, without injury But here is the difference: the 
cider in the bottle was fermented. I think it had some hand in producing 
the relapse. 

When I could go no further, I found a man who was kind enough to 
carry me to Norwich Landing. And I tarried there with a relative, till 
my friends at Plainfield were informed of my arrival, and my eldest 
brother came with a carriage, to help me home. The first night 1 lodged 
with a brother at Canterbury. This night, I deemed myself to be dying, 
and going directly to my long home. But the next day, I so revived 
as to reach the dwelling of my mother—a most affectionate mother, 
who always seemed willing to live or die for the good of her children, 
and who had made up her mind to submit to the will of God, and never 
more to see her son, and a child broken down with sickness, and other 
calamities. For about three weeks, I was in a state of perfect derangement. 
But, about ten days later, an unexpected and favorable crisis was formed 
in my disease. I say unexpected, for my death was looked for as certain. 
A joiner, who lived near at hand, afterward told me, that having seen me 
the evening before, and my brother calling at his house the next morning, 
he did not ask how I did, having no doubt but he had come to speak for 
my coffin. 

Near the close of winter, I so far regained my health, through the great 
kindness of the God of love, as to engage in the instruction of a school 
in the town where I resided; and since that period almost my whole 
life has been devoted to the instruction of youth, and preaching the 
everlasting gospel. 


A SAILOR’S STORY 


O F 


WHAT HE SAW AND SUFFERED, 

IN THE NAVAL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES, IN THE 

WAR OF THE REVOLUTION * 


During the Revolutionary war our coast was lined with British cruisers, 
which had almost annihilated our commerce ; and the state of Massa¬ 
chusetts judged it expedient to build a government vessel, rated as a 
twenty-gun ship, named the “ Protector,” commanded by Captain John 
Foster Williams. She was to be fitted out for service as soon as possible, 
to protect our commerce, and to annoy the enemy. 

All means were resorted to, which ingenuity could devise, to induce 
men to enlist. A recruiting officer, bearing a flag and attended by a 
band of martial music, paraded the streets, to excite a thirst for glory and 
a spirit of military ambition. The recruiting officer possessed the quali¬ 
fications requisite to make the service appear alluring, especially to the 
young. He was a jovial, good-natured fellow, of ready wit and much 
broad humor. When he espied any large boys among the idle crowd 
around him, he would attract their attention by singing, in a comical 
manner, the following doggerel: 

“ All you that have bad masters, 

And cannot get your due ; 

Come, come, my brave boys, 

And join with our ship's crew.” ^ 

A shout and a huzza would follow, and some would join in the ranks. 
My excitable feelings were roused; I repaired to the rendezvous, signed 
the ship’s papers, mounted a cockade, and was in my own estimation 
already more than half a sailor. Appeals continued to be made to the 
patriotism of every young man to lend his aid, by his exertions on sea 
or land, to free his country from the common enemy. About the last 
of February the ship was ready to receive her crew, and was hauled off 
into the channel, that the sailors might have no opportunity to run away 
after they were got on board. Upward of three hundred and thirty men 
were carried, dragged, and driven on board, of all kinds, ages, and de¬ 
scriptions, in all the various stages of intoxication ; from that of “sober 
tipsiness” to beastly drunkenness, with an uproar and clamor that may 
be more easily imagined than described. 

The wind being fair, we weighed anchor and dropped down to Nan- 
tasket roads, where we lay till about the first of April; and then set sail 
for a cruise of six months. We continued to sail along the coast for a few 
weeks, without meeting with any of the enemy, when, some indications 


* The narrative here given, is that of Ebenezer Fox, who was born in the vicinity 
of Boston, Mass., in the year 1763, and was living as late as the year 1838. 

( 211 ) 




A SAILOR’S NARRATIVE. 


212 

of tempestuous weather appearing, our captain judged it expedient to 
steer for the banks of Newfoundland, that he might have more sea room 
in case of a gale. On the morning of June 9th, 1780, the fog began to 
clear away; and the man at the mast-head gave notice that he saw a ship to 
the westward of us. As the fog cleared up, we perceived her to be a large 
ship under English colors, to the windward, standing athwart our starboard 
bow. As she came down upon us, she appeared as large as a seventy- 
four ; and we were not deceived respecting her size, for it afterward 
proved that she was an old East-Indiaman, of eleven-hundred tons burden, 
fitted out as a letter-of-marque for the West India trade, mounted with 
thirty-two guns, and furnished with a complement of one hundred and fifty 
men. She was called the Admiral Duff, commanded by Richard Strange, 
from St. Christopher and St. Eustatia, laden with sugar and tobacco, and 
bound to London. I was standing near our first lieutenant, Mr. Little, 
who was calmly examining the enemy, as she approached, with his spy¬ 
glass, when Captain Williams stepped up and asked his opinion of her. 
The lieutenant applied the glass to his eye again and took a deliberate 
look in silence, and replied, “I think she is a heavy ship and that we 
shall have some hard fighting, but of one thing I am certain, she is not a 
frigate; if she were, she would not keep yawing, and showing her broad¬ 
sides as she does; she would show nothing but her head and stern; we 
shall have the advantage of her, and the quicker we get along side the 
better.” Our captain ordered English colors to be hoisted, and the ship 
to be cleared for action. 

The enemy approached till within musket shot of us. The two ships 
were so near to each other that we could distinguish the officers from 
the men; and I particularly noticed the captain on the gangway, a noble 
looking man, having a large gold-laced cocked hat on his head, and a 
speaking-trumpet in his hand. Lieutenant Little possessed a powerful 
voice, and he was directed to hail the enemy; at the same time the quarter 
master was ordered to stand ready to haul down the English flag and to 
hoist up the American. Our lieutenant took his station on the after part 
of the starboard gangway, and elevating the trumpet, exclaimed, “Hallo! 
whence come you?”—“From Jamaica, bound to London,” was the 
answer. “ What is the ship’s name ?” inquired the lieutenant. “ The Ad¬ 
miral Duff,” was the reply. The English captain then thought it his turn 
to interrogate, and asked the name of our ship. Lieutenant Little, in order 
to gain time, put the trumpet to his ear, pretending not to hear the ques¬ 
tion. During the short interval, thus gained, Captain Williams called 
upon the gunner to ascertain how many guns could be brought to bear 
upon the enemy. “Five,” was the answer. “Then fire, and shift the 
colors,” were the orders. The cannons poured forth their deadly contents, 
and, with the first flash, the American flag took the place of the British 
ensign at our mast-head. 

The compliment was returned in the form of a full broadside, and the 
action commenced. I was stationed on the edge of the quarter-deck, to 
sponge and load a six-pounder; this position gave me a fine opportunity 
to see the whole action. Broadsides were exchanged with great rapidity 
for nearly an hour; our fire, as we afterward ascertained, produced a 
terrible slaughter among the enemy, while our loss was as yet trifling. 
I happened to be looking for a moment toward the main-deck, when a 
large shot came through our ship’s side and killed a midshipman. At 
this moment a shot from one of our marines killed the man at the wheel 
of the enemy’s ship, and, his place not being immediately supplied, she 


DESTRUCTION OF AN EAST-INDIAMAN. 


213 

was brought along side of us in such a manner as to bring her bowsprit 
directly across our forecastle. Not knowing the cause of this movement, 
we supposed it to be the intention of the enemy to board us. Our boarders 
were ordered to be ready with their pikes to resist any such attempt, while 
our guns on the main-deck were sending death and destruction among 
the crew of the enemy. Their principal object now seemed to be to get 
liberated from us, and by cutting away some of their rigging, they were 
soon clear, and at the distance of a pistol shot. 

The action was then renewed, with additional fury; broadside for 
broadside continued with unabated vigor; at times so near to each other 
that the muzzles of our guns came almost in contact, then again at such 
a distance as to allow of taking deliberate aim. The contest was obsti¬ 
nately continued by the enemy, although we could perceive that great 
havoc was made among them, and that it was with much difficulty that 
their men were compelled to remain at their quarters. A charge of 
grape-shot came in at one of our port-holes, which dangerously wounded 
four or five of our men, among whom was our third lieutenant, Mr. Little, 
brother to the first. 

The action had now lasted about an hour and a half, and the fire from 
the enemy began to slacken, when we suddenly discovered that all the 
sails on her mainmast were enveloped in a blaze. The fire spread with 
amazing rapidity, and, running down the after-rigging, it soon communi¬ 
cated with her magazine, when her whole stern was blown off, and her 
valuable cargo emptied into the sea. Our enemy’s ship was now a 
complete wreck, though she still floated, and the survivors were endea¬ 
voring to save themselves in the only boat that had escaped the general 
destruction. The humanity of our captain urged him to make all pos¬ 
sible exertion to save the miserable, wounded, and burned wretches, who 
were struggling for their lives in the water. The ship of the enemy was 
greatly our superior in size, and lay much higher out of the water. Our 
boats had been much exposed to his fire, as they were placed on spars 
between the fore and main masts during the action, and had suffered 
considerable damage. The carpenters were ordered to repair them with 
the utmost expedition, and we got them out in season to take up fifty- 
five men, the greater part of whom had been wounded by our shot or 
burned when the powder magazine exploded. Their limbs were muti¬ 
lated by all manner of wounds, while some were burned to such a degree 
that the skin was nearly flayed from their bodies. Our surgeon and his 
assistants had just completed the task of dressing the wounds of our own 
crew, and then they directed their attention to the wounded of the enemy. 
Several of them suffered the amputation of their limbs. Five of them 
died of their wounds, and were committed to their watery graves. From 
the survivors we learned, that the British commander had frequently 
expressed a desire to come in contact with a “Yankee frigate,” during 
his voyage, that he might have a prize to carry to London. Poor fellow! 
he little "thought of loosing his ship and his life in an engagement with a 
ship so much inferior to his own—with an enemy upon whom he looked 
with so much contempt. 

Our sailors were busily employed in picking up the various articles 
that were floating, and getting them on board, while the carpenters and 
riggers were engaged in repairing the damages we had received. The 
ship was soon in good order and prepared again to meet the enemy, and 
we continued on our cruise. Our captain, soon finding that sickness 


A SAILOR’S NARRATIVE. 


214 

was increasing among the crew, and that the wounded were suffering 
greatly, judged it expedient to leave our cruising ground, and to steer 
for some eastern port, that we might obtain a supply of wood and water. 
Some repairs likewise were necessary, which we could not conveniently 
make at sea. About the twentieth of the month we sailed from the banks 
of Newfoundland, and arrived at Broad bay in seven or eight days. 
Having found a good harbor, we dropped anchor, and made immediate 
preparations to get our sick and wounded men on shore. 

Our repairs being completed, and all things ready for sea, we weighed 
anchor about the last of June, and steered once more for the banks of 
Newfoundland, where the provisions of the ship beginning to fail, and no 
prospect of making captures appearing, our captain, with the advice of 
his officers, concluded to steer for Boston. In a few days we came in 
sight of Boston lighthouse and anchored in Nantasket roads. In a short 
time our ship was thoroughly overhauled, her bottom scraped, rigging re¬ 
paired, and everything was done to put her in perfect order. Wood 
and water, and various kinds of stores necessary for a cruise of six months, 
were taken on board; and, having recruited about two hundred men, 
preparations were made for our immediate departure. 

About the last of October, our boats were hoisted on deck and secured, 
and we dropped down into Nantasket roads, where we remained a few 
days, and then set sail upon our second cruise; After cruising for some 
time, and not falling in with anything, our captain concluded to steer for 
the southern coast of the United States. We arrived off the bar of Charleston, 
South Carolina; and in the course of a few days fell in with a ship called 
the Polly, a letter-of-marque, of twenty guns, bound to London. We 
gave chase late in the afternoon, and, as it soon grew dark, we lost sight 
of her. A thunder storm came on, and all hands were watching for her; 
and by the flashes of the lightning we at length discovered her, standing 
in a different direction from what we had at first seen her pursuing. We 
accordingly shifted our course, and crowded sail in pursuit. By the aid 
of the lightning, we kept in her course, and soon came up with her. 

“ What ship is that, and where from?” roared our lieutenant through 
his trumpet, in a voice that bore no slight resemblance to the thunder 
which rolled above our heads, “ The ship Polly, from Charleston, bound 
to London,” was the reply. The lightning, flashing upon her colors, 
showed that they were English; while the enemy had the same means of 
seeing the American flag flying at our mast-head. We were completely 
prepared for action; the matches were lighted; the lanterns burning fore 
and aft; and all anxiously waiting for the commands of the officers. One 
shot was fired, and our captain ordered the enemy to “ Haul down his 
colors, or he would blow him out of the water.” The appearance of our 
ship being formidable, our captain’s demand was instantly complied with. 
Our boat was lowered, and a prize-master and crew put on board, who 
took possession of the ship, and she was ordered for Boston. 

Our cruise thus far had been prosperous, and we thought the “evil 
day was afar off.” We continued merrily on our course, without seeing 
friend or foe, during the next day; but, the following morning, the man 
at the mast-head cried out, “Two sail to the leeward.” Mr. Little 
ascended to the maintop with his glass, and soon ascertained that they 
were two large ships, closely hauled upon the wind, in full chase of us 
Our yards were braced, and all sail crowded that the ship could carry. 
The chase continued, without gaining much upon us till about noon. 


THE STARS AND STRIPES LOWERED. 


215 

when, the wind shifting, they fell into our wake, and gained upon us very 
fast. Our captain, calling all the hands aft, on the quarter-deck, expressed 
his opinion, that the ships in pursuit of us were English, and that we 
should be captured. He then distributed among us his money for safe 
keeping, in sums of fifteen dollars to each, upon condition that it should 
be returned to him if we were so fortunate as to escape. It was now 
nearly sunset, and the enemy were gaining upon us rapidly. 

To attempt resistance against a force so much our superior would have 
been unjustifiable; and the flag of thirteen stars and stripes was reluctantly 
pulled down. The boats of the enemy were manned and sent along side 
of our ship. Our crew were now permitted by our officers to collect 
their clothing and their little property together, and secure them in the 
best manner they could. By this time, the boats had arrived along side, 
and the enemy had ascended the deck. 

Their first exploit was to strike or kick every sailor that came in their 
way, bestowing a variety of opprobrious epithets, among which “damned 
rebels” was of the most frequent recurrence; then they commenced 
searching in every part of the ship for articles of value. Our crew were 
ordered to pass down the side of the ship into the enemy’s boats; but 
were forbidden to carry anything with them. Some of our crew fastened 
their bedding upon their backs, and tumbled themselves head foremost 
down into the boats; and, as it was quite dark, they would unperceived get 
into the cuddy with their bedding, trusting to future circumstances for 
opportunity to use or secrete it. We arrived along side, and were ordered 
on to the quarter-deck of our captors. Some English sailor among our 
crew, to recommend himself to the favor of the British captain, had given 
information respecting the money we had secreted about our persons. 
The sergeant of arms was ordered to search every one of us till the sum 
of fifteen dollars was found upon each of us. In the capacity of cabin 
steward I was most of the time in the cabin, and had recommended myself 
to the favorable notice of the American captain by performing my duties 
to his satisfaction; and, when the money was distributed among our 
crew, the captain gave me a double share. I put fifteen dollars in the 
crown of my hat, which I pressed down upon my head as closely as 
possible; the remaining fifteen I placed in my shoes, between the soles. 
At length my turn to be searched came; and I, as the rest of my fellow- 
prisoners had done, denied having any money. This assertion, however, 
did not avail; I was seized by the collar, and shaken so violently that my 
hat fell off, and the dollars rolled out upon the deck. The sum of fifteen 
dollars being found, it was concluded that I had no more, and I was sent 
into the ship’s hold, where I found those of the crew who had been 
previously searched. Our accommodations in the hold were not very 
desirable, especially to those who had not succeeded in getting their 
bedding into that place. We found nothing to lie upon softer than the 
ship’s ballast, consisting of stones of all shapes and sizes, with here and 
there a lump of pig-iron by way of variety; and the water-casks, which 
afforded a surface rather uneven for the comfort and convenience of our 
weary limbs. Here we spent the first night, and were not allowed to go 
on deck till the next morning. 

Shortly after, we anchored off Sandy Hook, and preparations were 
made to examine the prisoners, to ascertain what part of them were 
Englishmen; or rather, who among them would carry the appearance of 
able-bodied seamen. We were called up from the hold ; ordered to the 
larboard side of the quarter-deck; thence marched, in single file, past a 


A SAILOR’S NARRATIVE. 


216 

number of British officers on the starboard side ; after that to the gangway, 
and down again into the hold. The object of thus moving in procession 
before the officers was, to give them an opportunity to select such as 
they chose, to serve on board of their ships. With fear and trembling 
we passed through this examination. Whenever a healthy, athletic looking 
man passed by, he was hailed, and accused of being an Englishman. 
In vain would his comrades attest to the fact of his being a native-born 
American, tell the place of his birth and the circumstances of his youth, 
detailed with all the consistency and connection which belong to truth ; 
it was all to no purpose. Sailors they wanted, and have them they would, 
if they set law and gospel at defiance. In this manner was many an 
American citizen, in the morning of life, dragged from his country, his 
friends, and his home; forced on board a ship of war ; compelled to fight 
against his own country; and, if he lived, to fight in battle with other 
nations, against whom he had no feelings of hostility. 

About a third part of our ship’s crew were taken on board of their 
vessels, to serve in the capacity of sailors, without regarding their remon¬ 
strances ; while the remainder of us were put on board of a wood coaster, 
to be conveyed on board the noted prison ship called the “Jersey.” We 
wished, if possible, to avoid the hard fate that awaited us; and conceived 
the design of rising upon the guard, seizing upon the sloop, and running 
her aground upon the Jersey shore. The plan could have been easily 
executed had there been any one among us to act as a leader in the 
enterprise. Our captain with his officers were confined in the cabin, 
under the watchful care of a number of British officers well armed; while 
a guard of soldiers stood at the head of the companion-way, to prevent 
any communication with the prisoners upon the deck. Sailors and sol¬ 
diers have the courage to execute, but not the skill to plan. Had our 
captain, in whom we had been in the habit of placing the utmost confi¬ 
dence, been with us, I have no doubt we should have obtained our freedom. 
As the deck was loaded with wood, we could in a moment have obtained 
weapons sufficient for our purpose, and, had any one among us been 
disposed to act as a leader, we should soon have had possession of the 
vessel. We afterward regretted exceedingly that we did not make the 
attempt. We proceeded slowly up the river toward our much dreaded 
place of confinement, and at doubling a point we came in sight of the 
gloomy looking hulk of the old Jersey, aptly named by the sailors, “ The 
hell afloat.” The Jersey was originally a seventy-four gun ship, and, at 
the commencement of the American Revolution, being found in a state 
of decay and unfit for service at sea, she was dismantled, moored in the 
East River, at New York, and used as a store-ship. In the year 1780, 
she was converted into a prison ship, and continued to be used for that 
purpose during the remainder of the war. 

In consequence of the fears that were entertained that the sickness, 
which prevailed among the prisoners, might spread to the shore, she was 
removed, and moored with chain cables at the Wallabout, a lonely and 
unfrequented place on the shore of Long Island. Her external appear¬ 
ance was forbidding and gloomy. She was dismantled; her only spars 
were the bowsprit; a derrick, that looked like a gallows, for hoisting 
supplies on board; and a flag-staff at the stern. The port-holes were 
closed and secured. Two tiers of holes were cut through her sides, 
about two feet square and about ten feet apart, strongly guarded by a 
grating of iron bars. The sloop anchored at a little distance from the 
Jersey, and two boats were sent along side to receive us. The boats 


SENT ON BOARD “ THE OLD JERSEY.” 


217 

passed and re-passed several times before all of us got on board; and 
lastly the captain’s barge was sent to convey our officers to their place 
of confinement. Not a great while after we were imprisoned our captain, 
together with the lieutenant and the sailing-master, Mr. Lemon, were 
sent to England; the latter, being an Englishman, had the comfortable 
assurance, that he should be hanged as soon as he arrived. After being 
detained in the boats along side a little while, we were ordered to ascend 
to the upper deck of the prison ship. Here our names were registered, 
and the capacity in which we had served previous to our capture. Each 
of us was permitted to retain whatever clothing and bedding we had 
brought, after having been examined to ascertain that they contained no 
weapons nor money ; and then we were directed to pass through a strong 
door, on the starboard side, down a ladder leading to the main hatchway. ' 
I now found myself in a loathsome prison, among a collection of the 
most wretched and disgusting looking objects that I ever beheld in human 
form. Here was a motley crew, covered with rags and filth; visages 
pallid with disease, emaciated with hunger and anxiety, and retaining 
hardly a trace of their original appearance. Here were men, who had 
once enjoyed life while riding over the mountain wave or roaming through 
pleasant fields, full of health and vigor, now shriveled by a scanty and 
unwholesome diet, ghastly with inhaling an impure atmosphere, exposed 
to contagion, in contact with disease, and surrounded with the horrors 
of sickness and death. Here, thought I, must I linger out the morning 
of my life, in tedious days and sleepless nights, enduring a weary and 
degrading captivity, till death shall terminate my sufferings, and no friend 
will know of my departure. A prisoner on board of “the old Jersey!” 
The very thought was appalling. I could hardly realize my situation. 

The first thing we found it necessary to do after our captivity was to 
form ourselves into small parties, called “messes,” consisting of six men 
each; as, previous to doing this, we could obtain no food. All the pris¬ 
oners were obliged to fast on the first day of their arrival; and seldom on 
the second could they procure any food in season for cooking it. No 
matter how hungry they were, no deviation from the rules of the ship 
was permitted. All the prisoners fared alike ; officers and sailors received 
the same treatment on board of this old hulk. Our keepers were no 
respecters of persons. We were all “rebels.” The quantity and quality 
of our fare was the same for all. The only distinction known among us 
was made by the prisoners themselves, which was shown in allowing 
those who had been officers previous to their capture, to congregate in 
the extreme after-part of the ship, and to keep it exclusively to themselves 
as their places of abode. The various messes of the prisoners were 
numbered; and nine in the morning was the hour when the steward would 
deliver from the window in his room, at the after-part of the ship, the 
allowance granted to each mess. Each mess chose one of their company 
to be prepared to answer to their number when it was called by the 
steward, and to receive the allowance as it was handed from the window. 
Whatever was thrust out must be taken; no change could be made in 
its quantity or quality. Each mess received daily what was equivalent 
in weight or measure, but not in quality, to the rations of four men at full 
allowance: that is, each prisoner received two-thirds as much as was 
allowed to a seaman in the British navy. 

Our bill of fare was as follows: On Sunday, one pound of biscuit, one 
pound of pork, and half a pint of peas. Monday, one pound of biscuit, 
one pint of oatmeal, and two ounces of butter. Tuesday, one pound of 


218 


A SAILOR’S NARRATIVE. 


biscuit, and two pounds of salt beef. Wednesday, one and a half pounds 
of flour, and two ounces of suet. Thursday was a repetition of Sunday’s 
fare, Friday of Monday’s, and Saturday of Tuesday’s. 

If this food had been of a good quality and properly cooked, as we 
had no labor to perform, it would have kept us comfortable, at least from 
suffering. But this was not the case. All our food appeared to be 
damaged. As for the pork, we were cheated out of it more than half of 
the time: and, when it was obtained, one would have judged from its 
motley hues, exhibiting the consistence and appearance of variegated 
fancy soap, that it was the flesh of the porpoise, or sea-hog, and had been 
an inhabitant of the ocean rather than of the sty. The peas were gener¬ 
ally damaged, and, from the imperfect manner in which they were cooked, 
were about as indigestible as grape-shot. The butter the reader will 
not suppose was the real “Goshen 5 ” and had it not been for its adhesive 
properties to retain together the particles of the biscuit, that had been so 
riddled by the worms as to lose all their attraction of cohesion, we should 
have considered it no desirable addition to our viands. The flour and 
the oatmeal were often sour, and when the suet was mixed with it, we 
should have considered it a blessing to have been destitute of the sense 
of smelling before we admitted it into our mouths: it might be nosed 
half the length of the ship. And last, though not the least item among 
our staples in the eating line—our beef. Its color was of dark mahogany ; 
and it could be pulled into pieces one way in strings, like rope-yarn. It 
was so completely saturated with salt, that, after having been boiled in 
water taken from the sea, it was found to be considerably freshened by 
the process. 

Such was our food. But the quality of it was not all that we had reason 
to complain of. The manner in which it was cooked was more injurious 
to our health than the quality of the food; and, in many cases, laid the 
foundation of diseases, that brought many a sufferer to his grave, years 
after his liberation. The cooking for the prisoners was done in a great 
copper vessel, that contained between two and three hogsheads of water, 
set in brick-work. The form of it was square, and it was divided into 
two compartments by a partition. In one of these, the peas and oat¬ 
meal were boiled; this was done in fresh water: in the other, the meat 
was boiled in salt water taken up from along side of the ship. 

The Jersey, from her size and lying near the shore, was imbedded in 
the mud; and I do not recollect seeing her afloat during the whole time 
I was a prisoner. All the filth that accumulated among upward of a 
thousand men was daily thrown overboard, and would remain there till 
carried away by the tide. The impurity of the water may be easily 
conceived ; and in this water our meat was boiled. It will be recollected, 
too, that the water was salt, which caused the inside of the copper to 
become corroded to such a degree that it was lined with a coat of verdi¬ 
gris. Meat thus cooked must in some degree be poisoned; and the 
effects of it were manifest in the cadaverous countenances of the ema¬ 
ciated beings, who had remained on board for any length of time. 

The persons chosen by each mess to receive their portions of food, 
were summoned by the cook’s bell to receive their allowance, and, when 
it had remained in the boiler a certain time, the bell would again sound, 
and the allowance must be immediately taken away: whether it was 
sufficiently cooked or not, it could remain no longer. The food was 
generally very imperfectly cooked; yet this sustenance, wretched as it 
was, and deficient in quantity, was greedily devoured by the half-starved 


SUFFERINGS OF THE JERSEY PRISONERS. 


219 

prisoners. No vegetables were allowed us. Many times since, when I 
have seen in the country, a large kettle of potatoes and pumpkins steam¬ 
ing over the fire to satisfy the appetites of a farmer’s swine, I have thought 
of our destitute and starved condition, and what a luxury we should have 
considered the contents of that kettle on board the Jersey. The prisoners 
were confined in the two main-decks below. The lowest dungeon was 
inhabited by those prisoners who were foreigners, and whose treatment 
was more severe than that of the Americans. The inhabitants of this 
lower region were the most miserable and disgusting looking objects that 
can be conceived. Daily washing with salt water, together with their 
extreme emaciation, caused their skin to appear like dried parchment. 
Many of them remained unwashed for weeks; their hair long and matted, 
and filled with vermin; their beards never cut, excepting occasionally with 
a pair of shears, which did not improve their comeliness, though it might 
add to their comfort. Their clothes were mere rags, secured to their 
bodies in every way that ingenuity could devise. Many of these men had 
been in this lamentable condition for two years, part of the time on board 
other prison ships; and, having given up all hope of ever being exchanged, 
had become resigned to their situation. These men were foreigners, 
whose whole lives had been one continual scene of toil, hardship, and 
suffering. But far different was the condition of the most numerous class 
of the prisoners, composed mostly of young men from New England, fresh 
from home. They had reason to deplore the sudden change in their con¬ 
dition. The thoughts of home, of parents, brothers, sisters, and friends, 
would crowd upon their minds; till “their desire for home became a 
madness.” 

In the morning, the prisoners were permitted to ascend the upper 
deck, to spend the day, till ordered below at sunset. A certain number, 
who were for the time called the “working party,” performed in rotation 
the duty of bringing up hammocks and bedding for airing ; likewise the 
sick and infirm, and the bodies of those who had died during the night: 
of these there were generally a number every morning. After these 
services it was their duty to wash the decks. Our beds and clothing 
were allowed to remain on deck till we were ordered below for the night; 
this was of considerable benefit, as it gave some of the vermin an oppor¬ 
tunity to migrate from the quarters they had inhabited. About two hours 
before sunset, orders were given to the prisoners to carry all their things 
below; but we were permitted to remain above till we retired for the 
night into our unhealthy and crowded dungeons. At sunset, our ears 
were saluted with the insulting and hateful sound from our keepers, of 
“Down, rebels, down,” and we were hurried below, the hatchways fastened 
over us, and we were left to pass the night amid the accumulated horrors 
of sighs and groans, of foul vapor, a nauseous and putrid atmosphere, in 
a stifled and almost suffocating heat. The tiers of holes through the 
sides of the ship were strongly grated, but not provided with glass; and 
it was considered a privilege to sleep near one of these apertures in hot 
weather, for the pure air that passed in at them. But little sleep, however, 
could be enjoyed even there; for the vermin were so horribly abundant, 
that all the personal cleanliness we could practice would not protect us 
from their attacks, or prevent their effecting a lodgment upon us. 

When any of the prisoners died in the night, their bodies were brought 
to the upper deck in the morning, and placed upon the gratings. If the 
deceased had owned a blanket, any prisoner might sew it around the 
corpse, and then it was lowered, with a rope tied round the middle, down 


A SAILOR’S NARRATIVE. 


220 

the side of the ship into a boat. Some of the prisoners were allowed to 
go on shore, under a guard, to perform the labor of interment. Having 
arrived cn shore, they found in a small hut some tools for digging, and a 
hand-barrow on which the body was conveyed to the place for burial. 
Here, in a bank near the Wallabout, a hole was excavated in the sand, in 
which the body was put, and then slightly covered; the guard not giving 
time sufficient to perform this melancholy service in a faithful manner. 
Many bodies would, in a few days after this mockery of a burial, be 
exposed nearly bare by the action of the elements. 

•* By feeble hands their shallow graves were made: 

No stone, memorial of their corpses, laid. 

In barren sands, and far from home, they lie, 

No friend to shed a tear when passing by— 

O’er the mean tombs insulting foemen tread ; 

Spurn at the sand, and curse the rebel dead.” 

This was the last resting place of many a son and brother; young and 
noble spirited men, who had left their happy homes and kind friends to 
offer their lives in the service of their country; but they little thought of 
such a termination to their active career. The fate of many of these 
unhappy victims must have remained forever unknown to their friends; for, 
in so large a number, no exact account could be kept of those who died, and 
they rested in a nameless grave; while those who performed the last sad 
rites were hurried away before their task was half completed, and for¬ 
bidden to express their horror and indignation at this insulting negligence 
toward the dead. 

The regular crew of the Jersey consisted of a captain, two mates, a 
steward, a cook, and about a dozen sailors. There was likewise on board 
a guard of ten or twelve old invalid marines., who were unfit for active 
service; and a guard of about thirty soldiers, from the different regiments 
quartered on Long Island, who were relieved by a fresh party every 
week. The physical force of the prisoners was sufficient at any time to 
take possession of the ship; but the difficulty was, to dispose of themselves 
after a successful attempt. Long Island was in possession of the British, 
and the inhabitants were favorable to the British cause. To leave the 
ship, and land upon the island, would be followed by almost certain 
detection. Yet, small as was the chance for succeeding in an underta¬ 
king, the attempt to escape was often made, and in not a few instances 
with success. 

Some weeks after our imprisonment on board the Jersey the following 
successful attempt was made by a number of the prisoners. At sunset the 
prisoners were driven below, and the main hatchway was closed. In 
this there was a small trap-door, large enough for a man to pass through, 
and a sentinel was placed over it with orders to permit but one prisoner 
at a time to come up during the night. The plan that had been formed 
was this: one of the prisoners should ascend, and dispose of the sentinel 
in such a manner that he should be no obstacle in the way of those who 
were to follow. Among the soldiers was an Irishman who, in consequence 
of having a head of hair remarkable for its curly appearance, and withal 
a very crabbed disposition, had been nicknamed “Billy the Ram.” He 
was the sentry on deck this night, for one was deemed sufficient, as the 
prisoners were considered secure when they were below, having no 
other place of egress saving the trap-door, over which the sentinel was 
stationed. Late in the night, one of the prisoners, a bold, athletic fellow. 


FLOORING OF “ BILLY THE RAM.’ 


221 

ascended upon deck, and in an artful manner engaged the attention of 
“ Billy the Ram,” in conversation respecting the war; lamenting that he 
had ever engaged in so unnatural a contest; expressing his intention of 
enlisting in the British service ; and requesting Billy’s advice as to the 
course necessary to be pursued to obtain the confidence of the officers. 
Billy happened to be in a mood to take some interest in his views, and 
showed an inclination, quite uncommon for him, to prolong the conver¬ 
sation. Unsuspicious of any evil design on the part of the prisoner, and 
while leaning carelessly on his gun, “ Billy” received a tremendous 
blow from the fist of his entertainer, on the back of his head, which 
brought him to the deck in a state of insensibility. As soon as he was 
heard to fall by those below, who were anxiously waiting the result 
of the friendly conversation of their pioneer with “ Billy,” and were satis¬ 
fied that the final knock-down argument had been given; they began 
to ascend, and, one after another, to jump overboard, to the amount of 
about thirty. , 

The noise aroused the guard, who came upon deck, where they found 
“ Billy,” not sufficiently recovered from the stunning effects of the blow 
he had received, to give any account of the transaction. A noise was 
heard in the water ; but it was so dark that no object could be distinguished. 
The attention of the guard, however, was directed to certain spots, which 
exhibited a luminous appearance, which salt water is known to assume 
in the night when it is agitated; and to these appearances they directed 
their fire, and, getting out the boats, picked up about half of the number 
that attempted to escape, many of whom were wounded, though no one 
was killed. The rest escaped. During the uproar overhead, the priso¬ 
ners below encouraged the fugitives and expressed their approbation of 
their proceedings in three hearty cheers ; for which gratification we suf¬ 
fered our usual punishment—a short allowance of our already short and 
miserable fare. 

Not long after this, another successful attempt to escape was made, 
which for its boldness is, perhaps, unparalleled in the history of such 
transactions. One pleasant morning about ten o’clock, a boat came 
along side, containing a number of gentlemen from New York, who came 
for the purpose of gratifying themselves with a sight of the miserable 
tenants of the prison ship: influenced by the same kind of curiosity that 
induces some people to travel a great distance to witness an execution. 
The boat, which was a beautiful yawl, and sat like a swan upon the water, 
was manned by four oarsmen, with a man at the helm. Considerable 
attention and respect was shown to the visitors, the ship’s side being 
manned when they showed their intention of coming on board, and the 
usual naval courtesies extended. The gentlemen were soon on board; 
and the crew of the yawl, having secured her- to the fore-chains on the 
larboard side of the ship, were permitted to ascend the deck. 

A soldier, as usual, was pacing with a slow and measured tread the 
whole length of the deck, wheeling round with military precision when 
he arrived at the end of his walk; and, whether upon this occasion any 
one interested in his movements had secretly slipped a guinea into his 
hand, not to quicken , but to retard his progress, was never known; but 
it was evident to the prisoners that he had never occupied so much time 
before in measuring the distance with his back to the place where the 
yawl was fastened. At this time, there were sitting in the forecastle, 
apparently admiring the beautiful appearance of the yawl, four mates 
and a captain, who had been brought on board as prisoners a few days 


A SAILOR’S NARRATIVE. 


222 

previous, taken in some vessel from a southern port. As soon as the 
sentry had passed these men, in his straight-forward march, they in a 
very quiet manner lowered themselves down into the yawl, cut the rope, 
and the four mates taking in hand the oars, while the captain managed 
the helm, in less time than I have taken to describe it they were under 
full sweep from the ship. They plied the oars with such vigor, that 
every stroke they took seemed to take the boat out of the water. In the 
meantime, the sentry heard nothing and saw nothing of this transaction, 
till he had arrived at the end of his march, when, in wheeling slowly 
round, he could no longer affect ignorance, or avoid seeing that the 
boat was several times its length from the ship. He immediately fired; 
but, whether he exercised his best skill as a marksman, or whether it was 
on account of the boat going ahead its whole length at every pull of the 
rowers, I could never exactly ascertain: but the ball fell harmless into 
the water. The report of the gun brought the whole guard out, who 
blazed away at the fugitives, without producing any diminution in the 
rapidity of their progress. 

By this time, the officers of the ship were on deck with their visitors; 
and, while all were gazing with astonishment at the boldness and effron¬ 
tery of the achievement, and the guard were firing as fast as they could 
load their guns, the captain in the yawl left the helm, and, standing erect 
in the stern, with his back to the Jersey, bending his body to a right angle 
he exhibited the broadest part of himself to their view, and with a signi¬ 
ficant gesture directed their attention to it as a proper target for the exer¬ 
cise of their skill. This contemptuous defiance caused our captain to 
swell with rage; and when the prisoners gave three cheers to the yawl’s 
crew, as expressive of their joy at their success, he ordered all of us to be 
driven below at the point of the bayonet, and there we were confined 
the remainder of the day. These five men escaped, greatly to the morti¬ 
fication of the captain and officers of the prison ship. After this, as long 
as I remained a prisoner, whenever any visitors came on board, all the 
prisoners were driven below, where they were obliged to remain till the 
company had departed. 

The miseries of our condition were continually increasing: the pesti¬ 
lence on board spread rapidly, and every day added to our bill of mor¬ 
tality. With the hope that some relief might be obtained to meliorate 
the wretchedness of our situation, the prisoners petitioned Gen. Clinton, 
commanding the British forces in New York, for permission to send a 
memorial to General Washington, describing our condition, and reques¬ 
ting his influence in our behalf, that some exchange of prisoners might 
be effected. Permission was obtained, and the memorial was sent. In 
a few days, an answer was received from Gen. Washington, containing 
expressions full of interest and sympathy, but declaring his inability to 
do anything for our relief by way of exchange, as his authority did not 
extend to the marine department of the service, and that soldiers could 
not consistently be exchanged for sailors. He declared his intention, 
however, to lay our memorial before Congress, and that no exertion 
should be spared by him to mitigate our sufferings. Gen. Washington 
at the same time sent letters to Gen. Clinton, and to the British Com¬ 
missary of Prisoners, in which he remonstrated against their cruel treat¬ 
ment of the American prisoners, and threatened, if our situation was not 
made more tolerable, to retaliate by placing British prisoners in circum¬ 
stances as rigorous and uncomfortable as were our own: that “with what 
measure they meted, the same should be measured to them again.” 


PRANKS OF THE PRISONERS. 223 

Wc experienced after this some little improvement in our food, but no 
relaxation in the severity of our confinement. 

As every principle of justice and humanity was disregarded by the 
British in the treatment of their prisoners, so, likewise, every moral and 
legal right was violated in compelling them to enter into their service. 
We had obtained some information in relation to an expected draught 
that would soon be made upon the prisoners to fill up a complement of 
men that were wanted for the service of his Majesty’s fleet. One day 
in the latter part of August, our fears of the dreaded event were realized. 
A British officer with a number of soldiers came on board. The prisoners 
were all ordered on deck, placed on the larboard-gangway, and marched 
in single file round to the quarter-deck, where the officers stood to 
inspect them and select such ones as suited their fancies, without any 
reference to the rights of the prisoners, or considering at all the duties 
they owed to the land of their nativity, or the government for which they 
had fought and suffered. We continued to march round, in solemn and 
melancholy procession, till they had selected from among our number 
about three hundred of the ablest, nearly all of whom were Americans, 
and they were directed to go below under a guard, to collect together 
whatever things they wished to take belonging to them. They were 
then driven into the boats, waiting along side, and left the prison ship, 
not to enjoy their freedom, but to be subjected to the iron despotism, 
and galling slavery of a British man-of-war; to waste their lives in a 
foreign service; and toil for masters whom they hated. Such, however, 
were the horrors of our situation as prisoners, and so small was the 
prospect of relief, that we almost envied the lot of those who left the ship 
to go into the service even of our enemy. 

In the midst of our distress, perplexities, and troubles at this period, 
we were not a little puzzled to know how to dispose of the vermin that 
would accumulate upon our persons, notwithstanding all our attempts at 
cleanliness. To catch them was a very easy task, but to undertake to 
deprive each individual captive of life, as rapidly as they could have 
been taken, would have been a herculean task. To throw them overboard 
would have been but a small relief; as they would probably add to the 
impurities of the boiler, by being deposited in it the first time it was 
filled up for cooking our unsavory mess. What then was to be done 
w r ith them? A general consultation was held, and it was determined to 
deprive them of their liberty. This being agreed upon, the prisoners 
immediately went to work, for their comfort and amusement, to make a 
liberal contribution of those migratory creatures, who were compelled to 
colonize for a time within the boundaries of a large snuff-box appropriated 
for the purpose. There they lay, snugly ensconced, of all colors, ages, 
and sizes, to the amount of some thousands, waiting for orders. British 
recruiting officers frequently came on board, and held out to the prisoners 
tempting offers to enlist in his Majesty’s service ; not to fight against their 
own country, but to perform garrison duty in the island of Jamaica. One 
day an Irish officer came on board for this purpose, and not meeting 
with much success among the prisoners who happened to be upon deck, 
he descended below to repeat his offers. He was a remarkably tall man, 
and was obliged to stoop as he passed along between the decks. The 
prisoners were disposed for a frolic, and kept the officer in their company 
for some time, flattering him with expectations, till he discovered their 
insincerity, and left them in no very pleasant humor. As he passed 
along, bending his body, and bringing his broad shoulders to nearly a 


A SAILOR’S NARRATIVE. 


224 

horizontal position, the idea occurred to our minds to furnish him with 
some recruits from the colony in the snuff-box. A favorable opportunity 
presented, the cover of the box was removed, and the whole contents 
discharged upon the red-coated back of the officer. Three cheers from 
the prisoners followed the migration, and the officer ascended to the 
deck, unconscious of the number and variety of recruits he had obtained 
without the formality of an enlistment. The captain of the ship, suspi¬ 
cious that some joke had been practiced, or some mischief perpetrated, 
from the noise below, met the officer at the head of the gangway, and, 
seeing the vermin crawling up his shoulders and aiming at his head with 
* the instinct peculiar to them, exclaimed, “Hoot, mon, wha’ is the matter 
wi’ yer bock?” The captain was a Scotchman. By this time many of 
them, in their wanderings, had traveled round from the rear to the front, 
and showed themselves, to the astonishment of the officer. He flung off 
his coat in a paroxysm of rage, which was not allayed by three cheers 
from the prisoners on the deck. Confinement below, with a short allow¬ 
ance, was our punishment for this gratification. 

Situated as we were, there appeared to us to be no moral turpitude in 
enlisting in the British service, especially when we considered that it 
was almost certain we should soon be impressed into the same. Soon 
after we had formed this desperate resolution, a recruiting officer came 
on board to enlist men for the eighty-eighth regiment, to be stationed at 
Kingston, in the island of Jamaica. We had just been trying to satisfy 
our hunger upon a piece of beef, which was so tough that no teeth could 
make an impression on it, when the officer descended between decks, 
and represented to us the immense improvement that we should expe¬ 
rience in our condition, if we were in his Majesty’s service; an abundance 
of good food, comfortable clothing, service easy, and in the finest climate 
in the world, were temptations too great to be resisted by a set of miserable, 
half-starved, and almost naked wretches, as we were, and who had already 
concluded to accept of the proposition even had it been made under 
circumstances less exciting. The recruiting officer presented his papers 
for our signature. Again we heard the tempting offers, and again the 
assurance that we should not be called upon to fight against our govern¬ 
ment or country; and, with the hope that we should find an opportunity 
to desert, of which it was our firm intention to avail ourselves when offered 
—with such hopes, expectations, and motives, we signed the papers, and 
became soldiers in his Majesty’s service.* 

But to return to our story, we shortly after, twelve in number, left the 
Jersey, and were landed upon Long Island and marched under a guard 
about a mile to an old barn, where we were quartered. Under various 
pretexts, we frequently went out that night to reconnoiter; but were 
satisfied that there was no chance for escape then, and must trust to 


♦The reader may have some curiosity to know what became of the “ Old Jersey.” 
The prisoners, who were on board of her at the conclusion of the war, in 1783, were 
liberated. The prison ship was then abandoned, and the dread of contagion pre¬ 
vented any one visiting her. Worms soon destroyed her bottom, and she afterward 
sunk. It is said that her planks were covered with the names of the captives who had 
been immured there; a long and melancholy catalogue, as it is supposed that a 
greater number of men perished on board of her than history informs us of in any 
other place of confinement in the same period of time. 

In the year 1803, the bank at the Wallabout was removed, as preparatory to 
building a Navy Yard. A vast quantity of bones were found, which were carefully 
collected and buried under the direction of the Tammany Society of New York. 



PRESSED INTO THE BRITISH ARMY. 


225 

Providence for some more favorable opportunity. Disappointed in all 
our hopes and expectations of escape, we were hurried on board of a 
vessel ready to sail for Jamaica, only waiting for a favorable wind. We 
entertained a faint hope, that, during our voyage, we might be taken by 
some American privateer, and consequently obtain our freedom. In the 
course of six or eight days, we weighed anchor, and hoisted our sail for 
Jamaica. 

The next day we anchored in the harbor of Port Royal, where we lay 
one day, and sailed for Kingston. We here landed, and with the sergeant 
at the head marched in single file through Kingston to a place called 
“Harmony-hall,” where the regiment was quartered, and were placed 
under the care of a drill sergeant. The next morning we were ordered 
out for drill, and received our uniform and arms, which we were ordered 
to keep bright and in good order for service. We had but little employ¬ 
ment, excepting being drilled to our hearts’ content by the sergeant, to 
make good soldiers of us for the service of his majesty, King George the 
Third. It appeared to be the object of our officers to reconcile us to 
the service, by making our duties easy and agreeable. We were often 
indulged with the privilege of leaving our quarters to visit the town or 
wander about the country adjacent. In our rambles about the town and 
country, we visited the grog-shops and taverns, places where sailors 
generally resort, and had got considerably acquainted with the keepers 
of these establishments. Our “passes” were signed by a commissioned 
officer, and they gave us permission to carry our side-arms, that is, a 
bayonet, and to be absent two hours at a time. 

While I and one of my comrades were wandering about the town one 
day, we stepped into a house where liquors and refreshments were to 
be obtained. We found one of the seats occupied by an English sailor, 
to whom we, rather too frankly for prudence, communicated our inten¬ 
tions ; or, more correctly speaking, gave him some cause for suspecting 
our designs from the questions we asked him respecting the probability 
of obtaining employment on board of some merchant vessel, in case we 
could get released from our present engagements. The sailor was 
inclined to be very sociable, and discovered no objections to drinking 
freely at our expense; telling us that he belonged to an English ship that 
would sail in a few days; that his captain was in want of hands; and that, 
at his intercession, he would undoubtedly take us on board. He appeared 
80 friendly, and his manners were so insinuating, that he completely won 
our confidence. He asked us how we could obtain liberty to leave the 
garrison, and to pass in and out when we pleased? Taking my “pass” 
out of my pocket, I showed it to him, and told him that was our authority. 
He took it into his hand, apparently with an intention of reading it; and, 
after looking at it for some time, in a sort of careless manner, he put it 
into his pocket. I felt a little surprised when I saw him do it, and my 
companion expressed his fears by whispering into my ear, “ Blast his 
eyes, he means to keep the pass.” n 

Having allowed the fellow to get possession of the paper, I felt myself 
responsible for it, and that it was necessary for me to recover it, even if 
I were obliged to resort to violent measures. I therefore said to him, 
“ My friend, I must have that paper, as we cannot return to our quarters 
without it.” He replied, “You had better be peaceable about it, for I 
mean to see your commanding officer.” 

Matters had now come to a crisis. I saw that it was the sailor’s object 
to inform against us, and to carry the “pass” as an evidence of our 
15 


A SAILOR’S NARRATIVE. 


226 

conference with him. I immediately drew my bayonet from its scabbard, 
and thrusting it against his side with force sufficient to inflict a slight 
wound, put my hand into his pocket and took out the “pass ;” and then, 
giving him a blow upon the head with the butt-end of my bayonet, dropped 
him senseless on the floor. The noise of this conflict brought the land¬ 
lord into the room, followed by his wife, with whom a previous acquain¬ 
tance had made me somewhat of a favorite. The rascal had by this time 
recovered his senses and had got upon his legs, and began to represent 
the matter in a light the most favorable to himself. 

We vehemently contradicted his assertions, and were stoutly backed 
up by the landlady, who was considerable of a termagant, and declared 
that “the sailor was a quarrelsome fellow; that he had made a difficulty 
once before in the house; and that her husband would be a fool if he did 
not kick him out of doors.” The landlord, to prove that he was “compos 
mentis,” and to appease the wrath of his wife, which waxed warm, com¬ 
plied with her kind wishes, and the sailor was, without much ceremony, 
hurried through the door, his progress not a little accelerated by a brisk 
application of the landlord’s foot, which sent him spinning into the street 
in the manner prescribed by the good woman. We were then advised 
by our friends to return to our quarters as quick as possible, lest the 
fellow might make some trouble for us. We paid our bill, and gave the 
landlord many thanks, not forgetting the landlady, to whose kind inter¬ 
ference we owed our fortunate escape. About this time I was unex¬ 
pectedly released from the duties of a soldier. One day I attracted the 
attention of an officer, by the exercise of my skill as a barber, in the act 
of shaving a comrade; and was forthwith promoted to the high station of 
hairdresser and shaver for the officers. I was assiduous in my attentions 
to my superiors, and thereby gained their confidence, and could, almost 
whenever I wished, procure a pass to go out when I desired. 

To visit my dear native land, my friends, and the scenes of my child¬ 
hood, was the prevailing wish of my mind; to accomplish this desire I 
was. willing to hazard my life. Many difficulties were to be surmounted 
before this could be effected. Friends were to be found, in whom confi¬ 
dence could be placed. 

I had become acquainted with five soldiers, who had been released 
from military duty, because they were mechanics, and could make them¬ 
selves useful in the performance of various mechanical services. They 
enjoyed considerable liberty, but did not possess the confidence of the 
officers in so great a degree as I did, having made myself useful and 
agreeable to them by personal attention in contributing to their comfort 
and convenience. About this time I had the good fortune to obtain a 
high degree of confidence, and to find great favor in the sight of the 
commanding officer, by the exercise of my professional skill in making 
him wonderfully satisfied with himself upon the occasion of a military 
ball. He was so much pleased with the improvement I made in his per¬ 
sonal appearance, that in the fullness of his heart he gave me a “pass to 
go out whenever I chose till further orders.” The five comrades, with 
whom I had associated, as I have observed, were mechanics, two of 
whom were armorers; and they had obtained from the arsenal two pis¬ 
tols and three swords, which were all the weapons we had: these, together 
with some articles of clothing, we had deposited in the hut of an old 
negro, whom we had bribed to secrecy. 

I had a general pass, as I have before observed, for myself to go 
out at pleasure; but it was necessary to obtain a special one for my 


ADVENTURES OF THE DESERTERS. 


227 

companions, and this duty devolved on me. In the afternoon, soon after 
dinner, I asked the commanding officer to grant me the favor of a pass 
for five of my acquaintances to go out to spend the evening, upon condition 
of returning before nine o’clock. The officer hesitated for a moment; 
and then, as he signed the pass, said, “ I believe I can trust you ; but 
remember that you must not come back without them.” This I readily 
promised, and I faithfully fulfilled the obligation. 

About the middle of the week, in the month of July, 1782, our little 
party of six,—five Americans, and one Irishman, an active, courageous 
fellow,—left the town, and proceeded to the negro’s hut, where we 
received our weapons and clothing, and some little stores of provisions 
which we had deposited. That afternoon a soldier had been buried at 
Rockfort, and part of the regiment had been out to attend the funeral. 
Seeing these soldiers upon their return, at a distance, and fearing that 
our bundles might excite their suspicion, we concluded to separate and 
meet again as soon as the soldiers had passed. We escaped their notice, 
and fortunately met together a little time after,—all but one, who was 
missing. We waited some time, and looked in various directions for 
him, without success. 

The man whom we missed was somewhat intoxicated, and the proba¬ 
bility was that he had lain down and fallen asleep ; or, perhaps, his courage 
had failed, and he had given up the undertaking, and might have gone 
back and given information against us. We were satisfied that we could 
wait no longer for him without exposing ourselves to great danger, and, 
therefore, concluded to proceed without him. What was his fate I have 
never been able to ascertain. We pushed rapidly forward till we had 
got about a mile from Kingston, when we entered a small piece of wood¬ 
land, and divested ourselves of our uniform, which we had worn with 
much reluctance, and had never ceased to regret having exposed ourselves 
to the necessity of putting on ; clothed ourselves in the sailor garments, 
which we had taken care to provide ; cut the white binding from our hats ; 
and were soon metamorphosed into much better sailors than we had 
ever been soldiers. Having loaded our pistols, we again proceeded. 
We had advanced but a few rods, when we met a sergeant, belonging to 
a regiment called the Liverpool Blues, who had been to Rockfort to see 
some of his acquaintance, and was then upon his return. It was near 
the time for stationing the guard, as usual, at the place called the “ Plum- 
tree.” The sergeant hailed us with, “ Where are you bound, my lads?” 
We answered, “ To Rockfort.” He replied, “I have just come from 
there and found all well: how goes on the recruiting at New York? and 
what is the news?” 

A ship had arrived the day previous, from New York, and he supposed 
that we were some of the recruits that she had brought over. We per¬ 
ceived his mistake, and adapted our answers to his questions, so as to 
encourage his delusion. We told him that the recruiting went on bravely, 
and we were going to join our regiment at Rockfort. The fellow seemed 
to be in a very happy mood, and immediately declared his intention of 
turning back to show us the way to the fort. Our situation was rendered 
very embarrassing by this kind offer; and to refuse it we feared would 
excite suspicion. Our generous guide thought he was doing us service, 
when he was leading us directly to destruction ; and the idea of killing 
him, while he imagined that he was performing a good service for us, 
was very unpleasant; but it was our only alternative. In a few moments 
the deed would have been done ; self-preservation made it necessary; 


228 


A SAILOR’S NARRATIVE. 


but, fortunately for the poor fellow, and much to our satisfaction, he 
suddenly recollected that his pass required him to be back to Kingston by 
nine o’clock, and, bidding us good night, and telling us that we could no f 
miss the way, he left us, and pursued his route to Kingston at a rapid pace 
We thought it important that we should get as far from Kingston that 
night as possible, as we should undoubtedly be pursued in the morning; 
and the sergeant, from whom we had just parted, would give information 
of us, as soon as he arrived and ascertained that we were deserters. 

We proceeded at a rapid pace for about half of a mile farther, when 
we met with an old negro, who hailed us, saying, “ Where be you going, 
massa buckra men? there be a plenty of soldiers a little way ahead; they 
will take you up, and put you on board of man-of-war.” We told him 
that we had got a pass. The negro replied, “ Dey no care for dat, dey 
put you on board a man-of-war.” He mistook us for sailors who were 
deserting from some ship. 

Whatever might be the cause, I always found the negroes in and about 
Kingston ready to give every facility to a soldier or sailor who wished to 
desert. We soon agreed with the old fellow for a dollar to guide us into 
a path through the woods, by following which we should avoid the guard 
at the “Plum-tree,” in whose vicinity we then were. We followed our 
guide about a mile, when he told us that we had got past the guard, and, 
giving us directions as to our future course, he left us, after having called 
God to witness that he never would inform against us. Our anxiety to 
escape pursuit determined us to use all the expedition we could through 
the night. About midnight, we came to one of the many rivulets with 
which Jamaica abounds. As we were unable to determine what its width 
or depth was, in the darkness, it was necessary to proceed with caution. 
The tallest of our party was sent forward to try to wade aqross. The 
rest followed in single file, according to our respective heights ; I, being 
the shortest, brought up the rear. Holding our arms and provisions and 
part of our clothing above our heads, we soon arrived on the opposite 
shore. We traveled in our wet clothes the remainder of the night, and, 
toward daylight, we looked round for some retired spot, where we could 
secrete ourselves during the day, as we considered that it would expose 
us to great hazard, if not to certain detection, to travel by daylight at so 
little distance from Kingston as we then were. 

As soon as it was dark enough to prevent discovery, we left our place 
of concealment, and proceeded on our second night’s journey. After 
having traveled three or four hours, we unexpectedly found ourselves 
near a hut, and were alarmed at hearing a negro female voice exclaim, 
“Here come a whole parcel of buckra man.” We immediately started 
from the spot, and proceeded with all practicable speed till we had traveled 
three or four miles, when we sat down to rest, and to refresh ourselves 
with some of our bread and dried herring. 

After several hours’ rest, we found ourselves considerably refreshed ; 
and as our small stock of provisions was nearly exausted, and we had 
consumed nearly the time we had anticipated would be required to arrive 
on the opposite side of the island, we concluded that we would venture 
to travel by daylight. We traveled without interruption till about three 
o’clock in the afternoon, and, while ascending a hill, we were alarmed 
by hearing the sound of voices. We stopped, and collected together to 
< consult upon what course to adopt. In a few moments, we saw, coming 
• over the hill, three stout negroes, armed with muskets, which they imme 
diately presented at us, and ordered us to stop. Our arms, as I have 


CONFLICT OF THE DESERTERS WITH MAROONS. 


229 

formerly observed, consisted of two pistols and three swords: upon the pis¬ 
tols we could place but little dependence, as they were not in good order; 
and the swords were concealed under our clothes; to attempt to draw 
them out would have caused the negroes instantly to fire upon us. They 
were about ten rods before us, and stood in the attitude of taking a 
deliberate aim at us. To run would be certain death to some of us; 
we therefore saw no alternative but to advance. One of our number, a 
man named Jones, a tall, powerful fellow, took a paper from his pocket, 
and, holding it up before him, advanced, with great apparent confidence 
in his manner, and the rest of us imitated his example. As we approached, 
Jones held out the paper to one of them, telling him that it was our pass, 
giving us authority to travel across the island. The negroes, as we very 
well knew, were unable to read; it was therefore immaterial what was 
written upon the paper,—I believe it was an old letter,—as manuscript 
or print was entirely beyond their comprehension. While we were ad¬ 
vancing, we had time to confer with each other; and the circumstances 
of the moment, the critical situation in which we were placed, naturally 
led our minds to one conclusion, to obtain the consent of the negroes 
that we might pursue our journey; but if they opposed our progress, to 
resort to violence, if we perished in the attempt. 

Our sufferings had made us somewhat savage in our feelings; and we 
marched up to them with that determination of purpose which desperate 
men have resolved upon, when life, liberty, and everything they value is 
at stake;—all depended upon prompt and decisive action. This was a 
fearful moment. The negroes stood in a row, their muskets still presented, 
but their attention was principally directed to the paper which Jones 
held before them; while our eyes were constantly fixed upon them, anx¬ 
iously watching their motions, and designing to disarm them as soon as a 
favorable opportunity should be offered. The negroes were large and 
powerful men, while we, though we outnumbered them, were worn down 
by our long march, and enfeebled by hunger. In physical power we 
were greatly their inferiors. But the desperate circumstances in which 
we were placed inspired us with uncommon courage, and gave us an 
unnatural degree of strength. 

We advanced steadily forward, shoulder to shoulder, till the breasts of 
three of us were within a few inches of the muzzles of their guns. Jones 
reached forward and handed the paper to one of the negroes. He took 
it, and having turned it round several times, and examined both sides, 
and finding himself not much the wiser for it, shook his head and said, 
“ We must stop you.” The expression of his countenance, the doubts 
which were manifested in his manner of receiving the paper, convinced 
us, that all hope of deceiving or conciliating them was at an end. Their 
muskets were still presented, their fingers upon the triggers. An awful 
pause of a moment ensued, when we made a sudden and desperate spring 
forward, and seized their muskets; our attack was so unexpected, that 
we wrenched them from their hands before they were aware of our inten¬ 
tion. The negro, whom I attacked, fired just as I seized his gun, but I 
had fortunately turned the direction of it, and the ball inflicted a slight 
wound upon my side, the scar of which remains to this day. This was 
the only gun that was discharged during this dreadful encounter. As 
soon as it was in my possession, I exercised all my strength, more than I 
thought I possessed, and gave him a tremendous blow over the head with 
the breech, which brought him to the ground, from which he never rose. 
I had no sooner accomplished my work, than I found my companions 


230 


A SAILOR’S NARRATIVE. 


had been equally active, and had dispatched the other two negroes in 
the same space of time. None of our party received any injury but 
myself, and my wound I considered as trifling. The report of the gun 
we were fearful would alarm some of our enemies’ comrades, who might 
be in the vicinity, and bring them to the spot. We accordingly dragged 
the bodies to a considerable distance into the woods, where we buried 
them under a quantity of leaves and brush. In their pockets we found a 
few biscuit, which were very acceptable to us in our famished condition. 
The best gun was selected, as we did not think it necessary to burden 
ourselves with the others, as they had been injured in the conflict. We 
took what ammunition we thought necessary, and then sought a place of 
rest for the remainder of the day. The negroes whom we had encoun¬ 
tered, belonged to a class called “ Cudjoe men.” They were encouraged 
to exercise their vigilance by the promise of receiving a certain sum of 
money for every fugitive slave they restored to his master, or soldier 
whom they should arrest as a deserter. We lay down in the woods, 
languid and exhausted, after the excitement and fatigue from our contest 
with the negroes, and slept soundly for some hours. As it was now nearly 
dark, we thought we would venture again upon our journey. Having 
loaded our musket, the spoils of our victory, we entered the road, and, 
having looked around with great caution, and finding no obstacles in the way 
to excite any apprehension, we started forward. We knew not for a 
certainty where we were ; but were satisfied, from the time we had con¬ 
sumed in our journey, that we could not be at a great distance from the 
northern side of the island. We traveled all night, occasionally stopping 
to rest, and refresh ourselves with some of the hard biscuit, which we 
had found in the pockets of the negroes, and a draught of water from the 
springs by the road-side. As daylight approached, we found ourselves 
on the summit of a hill, and in sight of the ocean. After we had remained 
as long as we thought prudent upon the eminence, we retired to the 
woods, for concealment during the day. We needed rest, and slept the 
greater part of the day. Before sunset, we left our hiding-place, after 
eating the remainder of our bread, and proceeded cautiously toward 
the shore, keeping ourselves concealed as much as possible behind the 
bushes. The island of Cuba could just be seen in the horizon, at the 
distance of thirty leagues ; between that and us lay the ocean, smooth 
and unruffled, and not a sail to whiten its surface. To remain where we 
were long, without starving or being detected, was impossible ; but how 
to get away was the problem to be solved. Undetermined what to do, 
we left our retreat again, and the first object that met our view upon the 
water was a sail-boat directing her course to the shore near where we 
were. 

The question now to be decided was, whether we should attempt to 
make a prize of the boat, and escape to Cuba. The wind was blowing 
from the shore, and the boat was consequently beating in against the 
wind. This was a favorable circumstance for us, if we could get posses¬ 
sion of the boat. The undertaking was fraught with difficulty and danger, 
but it was our only chance for escape. We crept cautiously down to the 
shore, keeping concealed as much as possible behind the bushes, till we 
arrived near to the point, at which we thought the boat was steering 
As she was beating against the wind, we concluded, if the man at the 
helm could be brought down, the boat would luff, which would bring her 
near the shore, when we were immediately to spring on board. Jones, 
being the best marksman, took the musket, and seeing that it was well 


CAPTURE OF THE BOAT. 


231 

loaded and primed, crept as close to the edge of the shore as he could 
without being discovered by the crew, and lay down, to wait for a good 
opportunity to fire at the man at the helm. The rest of us kept as near 
to him as possible. Every circumstance seemed to favor our design. 
The negroes were all in their huts, and everything around was quiet and 
still. 

The boat soon approached near enough for Jones to take a sure aim; 
and we scarcely breathed as we lay extended on the ground, waiting for 
him to perform the duty assigned him. 

In a few moments, bang went the gun, and down went the negro from 
the helm into the bottom of the boat; and, as we had anticipated, the helm 
being abandoned, the boat luffed up in the wind and was brought close 
to the shore, which was bold, and the water deep enough to float her. 
The instant the gun was fired, we were upon our feet, and in the next 
moment up to our waists in the water along side of the boat. No time 
was lost in shoving her about, and getting her bows from the land. 
There was a fresh breeze from the shore; the sails filled; and the boat 
was soon under a brisk headway. I remained in the water the last, and, 
as I attempted to get on board, my hands slipped from my hold on the 
gunwale, and I fell into the water. I heard an exclamation, “ Good God! 
Fox is lost!” from one of our party; but as the boat swept by me, I caught 
with my middle finger in the noose of a rope that hung over the stern, 
and was seized by the cape of my jacket and drawn into the boat by the 
powerful arm of Jones, who was managing the helm. All that I have 
described was apparently the work of a moment. Never did men use 
greater exertions than we did at this time. The report of Jones 1 gun 
alarmed the negroes, and brought them from their huts in all directions 
down to the shore, armed with muskets and clubs, and full of rage and 
fury. They waded out after us, up to their chins in the water; and 
fired volley after volley, as fast as they could load. The bullets fell 
thickly around us, but fortunately none of us were injured. 

Our attention was next directed to the disposal of the crew of the boat 
we had captured, consisting of three men and a boy. As soon as we 
sprung into the boat, they fled with terror and amazement into a sort of 
cabin in the bow, where they still remained. It was no wonder that they 
were frightened, attacked so suddenly by an enemy, who, as it seemed 
to them, had arisen all at once from the bowels of the earth or the depths 
of the ocean. Whether the head of the negro at the helm was bullet¬ 
proof, or whether the ball approached so near to it as to frighten him 
into insensibility, we never knew; but we found him prostrated in the 
bottom of the boat, when we entered it, apparently dead; but to our 
gratification, we soon found that he was alive, and not a curl of his wool 
discomposed. He was soon upon his knees, supplicating mercy, in which 
attitude and tone he was followed by the rest of the crew as we called 
them from their hiding-place. We gave them their choice to proceed 
with us on our voyage, or expose themselves to the hazard of drowning 
by attempting to swim ashore. They accepted the latter proposition 
with much gratitude, and were soon swimming lustily for the shore, from 
which we were at the distance of more than a mile, where we saw them 
all safely arrive. The negroes collected around them in great numbers 
after they landed, probably to hear their account of the transaction; and 
to obtain information concerning our intentions and destination. We 
felt animated by our success. We found the boat in good order; and, 
with a fresh breeze, we made rapid progress. We found a plenty of 


A SAILOR’S NARRATIVE. 


232 

provisions in the boat, with which, for the first time for five days, we abun¬ 
dantly satisfied our hunger. It was now nearly dark, and we had got a 
considerable distance from the shore; but we continued to watch the 
movements of the negroes with anxiety, least they should pursue us. 
After the negroes had held a short consultation together, we saw them 
all start off with great rapidity toward a point of land, under which we 
thought we could see something lying, that had the appearance of a vessel. 
As the negroes ran in that direction, we had no doubt that they had some 
plan in contemplation in relation to our capture. Our fears and conjec¬ 
tures were soon reduced to a matter of fact; for we had proceeded but 
a little distance farther, when we came in plain sight of a schooner at 
anchor. The vessel was soon under weigh, and sailing in a direction to 
cut us off; but we trusted that the approaching darkness would in a short 
time conceal us from the sight of our pursuers. As the schooner was a 
large object, compared with our little boat, we could see her long after 
we were invisible to them. After being satisfied of the course the 
schooner was taking, we thought the best way to avoid her would be to 
put about directly for. Jamaica. 

We sailed in this direction till we supposed that our enemy had got 
considerably past the course for us to pursue, when we again put about, 
and steered as directly as we were able for Cuba. We sailed without 
interruption through tlVe night, and, from the rapidity with which we had 
passed through the water, we concluded we could not be a great distance 
from the land. As soon as daylight approached we espied the shore, 
and lost no time in making for it. Shortly after, we saw, at a consid¬ 
erable distance, the schooner, apparently steering for Jamaica. They 
discovered us, and altered their course directly for us. Their approach, 
however excited no alarm in our minds now, for we were sure that we 
could run our boat on shore before they could come up with us. Their 
kind intentions were manifested in the compliment of a few salutes from 
a swivel, which proved as harmless as the courtesy we endeavored to 
show them by half a dozen salutes from the musket which had previously 
done us more faithful service. The schooner soon gave up the chase, 
“and left us alone in our glory.” 

In a few days we found a vessel bound for St. Domingo in which we 
took passage and on our arrival there found the American frigate Flora 
at anchor. A few hours saw us safe beneath the protection of the stars 
and stripes. 


THE NARRATIVE 


OP THE 


MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY, 

WITH THE ESCAPE OF CAPTAIN BLIGH, AND HIS PERILOUS VOYAGE OF NEAR FOUR THOUSAND 
MILKS IN AN OPEN BOAT TO THE ISLAND OF TIMOR, TOGETHER WITH THE FATE OF FLETCHER 
CHRISTIAN, THE LEADER OF THE MUTINEERS, AND THE FINAL SETTLEMENT OF THE LATTER AT 

PITCAIRN ISLAND, IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 


His Majesty’s ship Bounty was purchased into the service, and placed 
under the command of Captain Bligh, in 1787. She left England in 
December of that year, with orders to proceed to Otaheite, and transport 
the bread-fruit of that country to the British settlements in the West 
Indies, and to bring also some specimens of it to England. Her crew 
consisted of forty-four persons, and a gardener. She was ordered to make 
the passage round Cape Horn, but after contending a long time with 
adverse gales, in extremely cold weather, she was obliged to bear away for 
the Cape of Good Hope, where she underwent a refit, and arrived at her 
destination in October 1788. Six months were spent at Otaheite, collecting 
and stowing away the fruit, during which time the officers and seamen 
had free access to the shore, and made many friends, though only one 
of the seamen formed any alliance there. 

In April 178y, they took leave of their friends at Otaheite, and proceeded 
to Anamooka, where Bligh replenished his stock of water, and took on 
board hogs, fruit, vegetables, etc., and put to sea again on the 26th of the 
same month. Throughout the voyage Bligh, who was of an exceedingly 
tyrannical disposition, had repeated misunderstandings with his officers, 
and had on several occasions given them and the ship’s company just 
reasons for complaint. Still, whatever might have been the feelings of 
the officers, Adams declares there was no real discontent among the crew; 
much less was there any idea of offering violence to their commander. 
The officers, it must be admitted, had much more cause for dissatisfaction 
than the seamen, especially the master and the lieutenant, Fletcher 
Christian. The latter was a protegG of Bligh, and unfortunately was 
under some obligations to him of a pecuniary nature, of which Bligh 
frequently reminded him when any difference arose. Christian, excess¬ 
ively annoyed at the share of blame which repeatedly fell to his lot, in 
common with the rest of the officers, could ill endure the additional taunt 
of private obligations ; and in a moment of excitement told his commander 
that sooner or later a day of reckoning would arrive. The day previous 
to the mutiny a serious quarrel occurred between Bligh and his officers, 
about some cocoa-nuts which were missed from his private stock; and 
Christian again fell under his commander’s displeasure. The same 
evening he was invited to supper in the cabin, but he had not so soon 
forgotten his injuries as to accept of this ill-timed civility, and returned 
an excuse. 


(233) 



MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 


234 

Matters were in this state on the 28th of April 1789, when the Bounty, 
on her homeward voyage, was passing to the southward of Tofoa, one 
of the Friendly Islands. It was one of those beautiful nights which 
characterize the tropical regions, when the mildness of the air and the 
stillness of nature dispose the mind to reflection. Christian, pondering 
over his grievances, considered them so intolerable, that anything appeared 
preferable to enduring them, and he determined, as he could not redress 
them, that he would at least escape from the possibility of their being 
increased. Absence from England, and a long residence at Otaheite, 
where new connections were formed, weakened the recollection of his 
native country, and prepared his mind for the reception of ideas which 
the situation of the ship and the serenity of the moment particularly 
favored. His plan, strange as it must appear for a young officer to adopt, 
who was fairly advanced in an honorable profession, was to set himself 
adrift upon a raft, and make his way to the island then in sight. As 
quick in the execution as in the design, the raft was soon constructed, 
various useful articles were got together, and he was on point of launching 
it, when a young officer, who afterward perished in the Pandora, to whom 
Christian communicated his intention, recommended him, rather than 
risk his life on so hazardous an expedition, to endeavor to take possession 
of the ship, which he thought would not be very difficult, as many of the 
ship’s company were not well disposed toward the commander, and would 
all be very glad to return to Otaheite, and reside among their friends in 
that island. This daring proposition is even more extraordinary than the 
premeditated scheme of his companion, and, if true, certainly relieves 
Christian from part of the odium which has hitherto attached to him as 
the sole instigator of the mutiny. 

It however accorded too well with the disposition of Christian’s mind, 
and hazardous as it was, he determined to co-operate with his friend in 
effecting it, resolving, if he failed, to throw himself into the sea; and that 
there might be no chance of being saved, he tied a deep sea-lead about 
his neck, and concealed it within his clothes. Christian happened to 
have the morning watch, and as soon as he had relieved the officer of the 
deck, he entered into conversation with Quintal, the only one of the sea¬ 
men who, Adams said, had formed any serious attachment at Otaheite; 
and after expatiating on the happy hours they had passed there, disclosed 
his intentions. Quintal, after some consideration, said he thought it a 
dangerous attempt, and declined taking a part. Vexed at a repulse in a 
quarter where he was most sanguine of success, and particularly at having 
revealed sentiments which, if made known, would bring him to an ignomi¬ 
nious death, Christian became desperate, exhibited the lead about his 
neck in testimony of his own resolution, and taxed Quintal with cowardice, 
declaring it was fear alone that restrained him. Quintal denied this 
accusation ; and in reply to Christian’s further argument, that success 
would restore them all to the happy island, and the connections they had 
left behind, the strongest persuasion he could have used to a mind some¬ 
what prepared to acquiesce, he recommended that some one else should 
be tried—Isaac Martin for instance, who was standing by. Martin, more 
ready than his shipmate, emphatically declared, “ He was for it; it was 
the very thing.” Successful in one instance, Christian went to every man 
of his watch, many of whom he found disposed to join him, and before 
daylight the greater portion of the ship’s company were brought over. 

Adams was sleeping in his hammock, when Sumner, one of the seamen, 
came to him, and whispered that Christian was going to take the ship 


MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 


235 

from her commander, and set him and the master on shore. On hearing 
this, Adams went upon deck, and found everything in great confusion; 
but not then liking to take any part in the transaction, he returned to his 
hammock, and remained there until he saw Christian at the arm-chest, 
distributing arms to all who came for them ; and then seeing measures 
had proceeded so far, and apprehensive of being on the weaker side, he 
turned out again and went for a cutlass. All those who proposed to 
assist Christian being armed, Adams, with others, was ordered to secure 
the officers, while Christian and the master-at-arms proceeded to the 
cabin to make a prisoner of Captain Bligh. They seized him in his cot, 
bound his hands behind him, and brought him upon deck. He remon¬ 
strated with them on their conduct, but received only abuse in return, 
and a blow from the master-at-arms with the flat side of a cutlass. He 
was placed near the binnacle, and detained there, with his arms pinioned, 
by Christian, who held him with one hand, and a bayonet with the other. 
As soon as the lieutenant was secured, the sentinels that had been placed 
over the doors of the officers’ cabins were taken off; the master then 
jumped upon the forecastle, and endeavored to form a party to retake 
the ship ; but he was quickly secured, and sent below in confinement. 

This conduct of the master, who was the only officer that tried to bring 
the mutineers to a sense of their duty, was the more highly creditable to 
him, as he had the greatest cause for discontent, Bligh having been more 
severe to him than to any of the other officers. About this time a dispute 
arose, whether the lieutenant and his party, whom the mutineers resolved 
to set adrift, should have the launch or the cutter ; and it being decided 
in favor of the launch, Christian ordered her to be hoisted out. Martin, 
who, it may be remembered, was the first convert to Christian’s plan, 
foreseeing that with the aid of so large a boat the party would find their 
way to England, and that their information would, in all probability, lead 
to the detection of the offenders, relinquished his first, intention, and 
exclaimed, “If you give him the launch, I will go with him ; you may as 
well give him the ship.” He really appears to have been in earnest in 
making this declaration, as he was afterward ordered to the gangway from 
his post of command over the lieutenant, in consequence of having fed 
him with a shaddock, and exchanged looks with him indicative of his 
friendly intentions. It also fell to the lot of Adams to guard the lieutenant, 
who, observing him stationed by his side, exclaimed, “And you, Smith, 
are you against me?”* To which Adams replied that he only acted as 
the others did—he must be like the rest. Captain Bligh, while thus 
secured, reproached Christian with ingratitude, reminded him of his 
obligations to him, and begged he would recollect he had a wife and 
family. To which Christian replied, that he should have thought of that 
before. 

The launch was by this time hoisted out; and the officers and seamen 
of Captain Bligh’s party having collected what was necessary for their 
voyage, were ordered into her. Among those who took their seats in 
the boat was Martin, which being noticed by Quintal, he pointed a musket 
at him, and declared he would shoot him unless he instantly returned to 
the ship, which he did. The armorer and carpenter’s mates were also 
forcibly detained, as they might be required hereafter. All those now 
being in the boat who were intended to accompany their unfortunate 
commander, Christian addressed him, saying—“Come, Captain Bligh, 


♦Adams went by the name of Alexander Smith in the Bounty. 



MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 


236 

your officers and men are now in the boat, and you must go with them; 
if you attempt to make the least resistance you will instantly be put to 
death.” He was then forced over the side, and his hands unbound. 
When they were putting him out of the ship, Bligh looked steadfastly at 
Christian, and asked him, if his treatment was a proper return for the 
many instances he had received of his friendship? At this question he 
seemed confused, and answered with much emotion—“ That, Captain 
Bligh,-that is the thing;-I am in hell—I am in hell!” 

The boat was veered astern, and soon after cast adrift, amid the 
ridicule and scoffs of these deluded and unthinking men, whose general 
shout was, “huzza for Otaheite.” The armorer and carpenter’s mates 
called on Bligh, and begged him to remember that they had no hand in 
the transaction, and some others seemed to express by their manner a 
contrition for having joined in the mutiny. 

Before the boat was cast off, Bligh begged that some arms might be 
handed into her ; but these unfeeling wretches laughed at him, and said 
“he was well acquainted with the people among whom he was going, 
and therefore did not want them.” They, however, threw four cutlasses 
into the boat. Their whole stock of provisions consisted of one hundred 
and fifty pounds of bread, sixteen pieces of pork, six quarts of rum, with 
twentv-eight gallons of water ; there were also four empty barrecoes in 
the boat. The boatswain had been allowed to collect a small quantity 
of twine, some canvas, lines, and cordage. Mr. Samuel, the clerk, had 
been also permitted to take a quadrant and compass ; but he was forbid¬ 
den, on pain of death, to touch either chart, ephemeris, book of astronomical 
observations, sextant, time-keeper, or any of the surveys or drawings 
which Bligh had been collecting for fifteen years. Mr. Samuel had the 
good fortune to secure Bligh’s journal and commission, with some other 
material ship papers. And at the time the boat left the ship they were 
about ten leagues from Tosoa. Bligh’s first determination was to steer 
for this place, to seek a supply of bread-fruit and water, from thence to 
proceed to Tongataboo, and there to solicit the king to suffer him to equip 
the boat, and grant them such a supply of water and provisions as might 
enable them to reach the East Indies. Arriving at Tosoa, they found 
the natives unfriendly and hostile ; and availing themselves of the de¬ 
fenseless state of the English, attacked them violently with stones, so that 
the supply they got here was very scanty. It was, indeed, with some 
difficulty they escaped being entirely cut off by the natives ; which most 
probably would have been the case, had not one of the crew (John Norton) 
resolutely jumped on shore and cast off the stern-fast of the boat; this 
brave fellow fell a sacrifice to preserve the lives of his companions ; he 
was surrounded and inhumanly murdered by these savages. 

It now seemed the general wish of all in the boat, that Bligh should 
conduct them toward home. He pointed out to them that no hopes of 
relief remained, excepting what might be found at New Holland, or the 
island of Timor, which was at the distance of full 1200 leagues; and 
that it would require the greatest economy to be observed, with regard 
to the scanty allowance which they had to live upon for so long a voyage. 
It was therefore agreed by the whole crew, that only an ounce of bread, 
and a quarter of a pint of water should be issued to each person per day. 
After Bligh had recommended to them in the most solemn manner not to 
depart from the promise they had made ; he, on the second of May, bore 
away, and shaped his course for New Holland, across a sea little explored, 
in a boat only twenty-three feet in length, six feet nine inches in breadth. 




MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 237 

and two feet nine inches deep, with eighteen persons on board, and 
heavy laden. 

The men were divided into watches, and they returned thanks to God 
lor their miraculous escape. The second day was stormy; and, to lighten 
the boat, everything was thrown overboard that could be spared, except 
two suits of clothes to each. A teaspoonful of rum, and a quarter of a 
bread-fruit, was served out for dinner, with a determination to make 
their provisions last out eight weeks. The sixth day their allowances 
were delivered out by a pair of scales made of two cocoanut shells; and 
the weight of a pistol-ball of bread was served out, making one twenty- 
fifth part of a pound of sixteen ounces, or two hundred and seventy-two 
grains, at a meal. The ninth day they were served regularly with one 
twenty-fifth of a pound of bread, and a quarter of a pint of water at morning, 
noon, and sunset; and this day with half an ounce of pork for dinner to 
each, which was divided into three or four mouthfuls. The eleventh day 
it rained, and was cold ; and the men began to be dejected, full of wants, 
and without the means of relief. Their clothes were wet through, which 
they stripped off, and wrung through salt water ; by which means they felt 
a warmth which they could not have had while wet with rain.* The 
fourteenth day they passed by islands they dared not touch at, for fear 
of the natives, having been in other places pursued ; which rather in¬ 
creased their misery. A general run of cloudy wet weather was considered 
as a great blessing of Providence, as the hot weather would have caused 
them to have died with thirst. Being so constantly covered with rain or 
sea, they conceived it protected them from that dreadful calamity. 

The nineteenth day the men seemed half dead, and their appearances 
were horrible. Extreme hunger was now very great. No one suffered 
from thirst, nor had they much inclination to drink, that desire being 
satisfied through the skin; and the little sleep they got was in the midst 
of water. Two spoonfuls of rum were served out this morning, with their 
usual allowance of bread and water. At noon the sun broke out, which 
rejoiced every one. In the afternoon they were covered with rain and 
salt water—the cold was extreme—and every one dreaded the approach 
of night. Sleep, though longed for, gave but little comfort. Captain 
Bligh himself almost lived without it. The next morning the weather 
abated, and a larger allowance of rum was given out. The twenty-second 
day the weather was bad, and the men in great distress, and in expectation 
that such another night as their last would put an end to their lives. 
Several seemed to be no longer able to support their sufferings. Two 
teaspoonfuls of rum were served out; after which, with wringing their 
clothes, and their breakfast of bread and water, they became a little 
refreshed. The weather abated, all hands were rejoiced, and they ate 
their other scanty meals with more satisfaction than for some time past. 

The twenty-third day the fineness of the morning produced cheerful 
countenances, and they experienced, for the first time, for fifteen days 
past, comfort from the warmth of the sun. They stripped, and hung up 
their clothes to dry; which were now so threadbare as to keep neither 


♦Captain Bligh afterward frequently practiced it with great benefit, and states that 
the preservation of their health during sixteen days of continued heavy rains, was 
owing to this practice of wringing their clothes out as often as they became filled 
with rain ; and that the men felt a change more like that of dry clothes than could 
have been imagined ; that they often repeated it, and it gave great refreshment and 
warmth. 



MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 


238 

cold nor wet out. They saw many birds, a sure sign of being near land. 
The state of their provisions this day, at their usual rate of allowance, 
would have lasted for nineteen days longer, when they hoped to reach 
the island of Timor. But as it was possible they might be obliged to go 
to Java, they reduced their allowance to make their stock hold out for 
six weeks. The necessity of the case was stated, and every one cheerfully 
agreed to receive one twenty-fifth of a pound of bread for breakfast, 
and the same for dinner; and by omitting supper they had forty-three 
days’ allowance. The twenty-fourth day a bird the size of a pigeon 
was caught, and divided into eighteen portions. They also caught a booby, 
which was killed for supper, and its blood given to three of those who 
were most distressed for want of food ; and, as a favor, an allowance of 
bread was given out for supper ; and they made a good supper, compared 
with their usual fare. The twenty-fifth day they caught another booby. The 
weather was fine; and they thought Providence appeared to be relieving 
their wants. The men were overjoyed at this addition to their dinner. 
The blood was given to those who most wanted food. To make their 
bread a little savory, many dipped it frequently in salt water, while 
others broke theirs into small pieces, and ate it in their allowance of water, 
out of a cocoanut shell, with a spoon—economically avoiding to take 
too large a piece at a time ; so that they were as long at dinner as if they 
had been at a more plentiful meal. The serenity of the weather was not 
without its inconvenience, and distress now came of another kind. The 
sun was so powerful that the men were seized with languor and faintness, 
which made life to some indifferent. The twenty-sixth day they passed 
by much drifted wood, and caught two boobies, whose stomachs contained 
several flying-fish and small cuttle-fish. They were considered as 
valuable prizes, and were divided, with their maws, into eighteen portions, 
in addition to their common allowance. Captain Bligh was happy to see 
that with this every person thought he had feasted. In the evening, they 
saw a gannet; and, as the clouds remained fixed in the west, they had 
no doubt of being near to land; and they all amused themselves by 
conversing on the probability of what they should find. 

The twenty-eighth day they made an island, in lat. 12° 39' S., long, 
(by account) 40° 35' W. of Tofoa, which they called Restoration Island, 
where they found plenty of water, and oysters, which were so fast to the 
rocks that they were obligedto open the shells. They made some excellent 
stews of them, mixed with bread and a bit of pork, by means of a copper 
pot which they found on board, and a tinder-box that had been thrown 
into the boat on turning off. Each person received a full pint. The men, 
though weak, appeared much refreshed, and in spirits, with a hope of 
being able to surmount the difficulties they had to encounter. The 
diseases of the people were, a dizziness in the head, a weakness of joints, 
and violent tenesmus—few of the men having had an evacuation by stool 
since they had left the ship;—but the complaints of none were alarming. 
Every one retained marks of strength that, with a mind possessed of a 
tolerable share of fortitude, seemed able to bear more fatigue than they 
imagined they should have in their voyage to Timor. The men were not 
permitted to expose themselves to the heat of the sun, but to take their 
short sleep in the shade: they were cautioned about taking berries or 
fruit, which, unless eaten by birds, were not deemed wholesome. Some 
suffered by neglecting this caution. The twenty-ninth day, finding them¬ 
selves discovered by the natives, they said prayers, and embarked. Their 
stock of bread, according to their last mode of allowance, was a twenty-fifth 


MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 


239 

of a pound at breakfast and at dinner. The thirtieth day they landed on 
another island, and parties were sent out for supplies. But a spirit of 
discontent began to discover itself among some, and from one man in 
particular ; but it was instantly checked, and everything became quiet 
again. Each person got this day a full pint and a half of stewed oysters 
and clams, thickened with small beans, which the botanists call a species 
of dolichos. 

The thirty-first day, Mr. Nelson, the botanist, was taken very ill with 
violent pains in his bowels, loss of sight, much drought, and an inability 
to walk. This was partly owing to heat and fatigue, and not retiring to 
sleep in the shade, or to improper food. The little wine that remained 
was of real use. With a few pieces of bread soaked in half a glass of 
wine occasionally, he continued to mend, and it was found at last not 
necessary to continue the wine. For six days they coasted along New 
Holland, and, on landing, got occasionally supplies of oysters, birds, and 
water. These, though small, with rest, and being relieved from many 
fatigues, preserved their lives; but, even in their present state, they were 
deplorable objects. The thirty-third day from their leaving Tofoa, which 
was the third of June, they again launched into the open ocean for tbe 
island of Timor. Bligh was happy to find that no one was so much 
affected with their miserable situation as himself; but that the men 
seemed as if they were embarked on a voyage to Timor, in a vessel suffi¬ 
ciently calculated for safety and convenience. This confidence gave 
him pleasure ; and to this cause did he attribute their preservation. 
Every one was encouraged to believe that eight or ten days would bring 
them to Timor; and, after prayers, their allowance of water was served 
out for supper. The thirty-sixth day, the state of stores on hand, at their 
former rate of serving, was equal to nineteen days’ allowance, at three 
times a day; and there being now every prospect of a quick passage, 
their suppers were again granted. The thirty-seventh day the sea was 
high, with much rain, and the night cold. The surgeon and an old 
hardy seamen appeared to be giving way very fast. They were assisted 
by a teaspoonful or two of the wine at a time, which had been carefully 
saved, expecting such a melancholy necessity. The thirty-eighth day 
they caught a small dolphin, which was their first relief of this kind 
Two ounces were delivered out to each man this day, and the remainder 
was reserved for the next day. The thirty-ninth day the men were be 
ginning to complain generally; and, by the feelings of all, they wer« 
convinced they were but too well founded. The surgeon and the olo 
seaman had a little wine given to them ; and encouraged with the hope.* 
of reaching Timor in a very few days, on their present fine rate of sailing. 
The fortieth day, in the morning, after a comfortless night, there was 
such a visible alteration in many of the people, as to occasion many ap¬ 
prehensions. Extreme weakness, swelled legs, hollow ghastly counte¬ 
nances, a more than common inclination to sleep, and an apparent debility 
of understanding, seemed to indicate approaching dissolution. The sur¬ 
geon and the old seaman were the most miserable of objects. A few 
teaspoonfuls of the little wine that remained, greatly assisted them: hope 
was their principal support, and birds and rockweed showed they were 
not far from land. 

On the forty-first day every one received his accustomed allowance, 
and an extra supply of water to those who wanted it. By observation, 
they found they had now passed the meridian of the eastern part of 
Timor, which gave great joy. On the forty-second day, the 12th of June, 


MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 


240 

at three in the morning, they discovered Timor, at two leagues 1 distance. 
It was impossible to describe the joy it diffused. It appeared scarcely 
credible to themselves, that in an open boat, so poorly provided, they 
should have been enabled to reach the coast of Timor in forty-one days 
after leaving the island of Tofoa ; having in that time run the distance 
of 3,618 miles; and that, notwithstanding their extreme distress, no one 
should have perished on the voyage. 

Some of the natives brought them some Indian corn, and pilots to con¬ 
duct them to Coupang. They were becalmed, and the men were obliged 
to try at the oars, which they used with some effect. On the 14th of 
June they reached Coupang, where they received every attention huma¬ 
nity and kindness could dictate. Nothing but the strictest economy of 
their provisions, the sacredly keeping to their agreements, and due sub¬ 
ordination and perseverance, could have saved Bligh and his men. Such 
had been their attention to these points, that when they arrived at Timor, 
there remained on hand eleven days 1 provisions to have carried them od 
to Java, if they had missed this island. The quantity of provisions, with 
which they left the ship was not more than would have been consumed 
in five days, without such precautions. 

In March of the following year, Captain Bligh arrived in England. 
Out of nineteen who were in the boat, when she was turned adrift by 
the mutineers, only twelve lived to reach their native country. 

We now return to the Bounty, and the adventures of its mutinous crew. 
Christian, who was the mate, Heywood, Young and Stewart, midshipmen, 
the master-at-arms, and sixteen seamen, beside the three artificers and 
the gardener—forming in all twenty-five—made up the entire crew. 

The ship having stood for some time to the W.N.W., with a view to 
deceive the party in the launch, was afterward put about, and her course 
directed as near to Otaheite as the wind would permit. In a few days 
they found some difficulty in reaching that island, and bore away for To- 
bouai, a small island about three hundred miles to the southward of it, 
where they agreed to establish themselves, provided the natives, who 
were numerous, were not hostile to their purpose. Of this they had 
very early intimation, an attack being made upon a boat which they sent to 
sound the harbor. She, however, effected her purpose; and the next 
morning the Bounty was warped inside the reef that formed the port, and 
stationed close to the beach. An attempt to land was next made; 
but the natives disputed every foot of ground with spears, clubs and 
stones, until they were dispersed by a discharge of cannon and musketry. 
On this they fled to the interior, and refused to hold any further inter¬ 
course with their visitors. The determined hostility of the natives put 
an end to the mutineers 1 design of settling among them at that time; 
and, after two days 1 fruitless attempt at reconciliation, they left the 
island and proceeded to Otaheite. Tobouai was, however, a favorite 
spot with them, and they determined to make another effort to settle 
there, which they thought would yet be feasible, provided the islanders 
could be made acquainted with their friendly intentions. The only way 
to do this was through interpreters, who might be procured at Otaheite ; 
and in order not to be dependent upon the natives of Tobouai for wives, 
they determined to engage several Otaheitan women to accompany them. 
They reached Otaheite in eight days, and were received with the greatest 
kindness by their former friends, who immediately inquired for the captain 
and his officers. Christian and his party having anticipated inquiries of 
this nature, invented a story to account for their absence, and told them 


MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 


241 

that Bligh, having found an island suitable for a settlement, had landed 
there with some of his officers, and sent them in the ship to procure live 
stock and whatever else would be useful to the colony, and to bring beside 
such of the natives as were willing to accompany them. Satisfied with 
this plausible account, the chiefs supplied them with everything they 
wanted, and even gave them a bull and a cow which had been confided 
to their care, the only ones, I believe, that were on the island. They 
were equally fortunate in finding several persons, both male and female, 
willing to accompany them ; and thus furnished, they again sailed for 
Tobouai, where, as they expected, they were better received than before, 
in consequence of being able to communicate with the natives through 
their interpreters. 

Experience had taught them the necessity of making self-defense their 
first consideration, and a fort was consequently commenced, eight yards 
square, surrounded by a wide ditch. It was nearly completed, when the 
natives, imagining they were going to destroy them, and that the ditch 
was intended for their place of interment, planned a general attack when 
the party should proceed to work in the morning. It fortunately happened 
that one of the natives who accompanied them from Otaheite overheard 
this conspiracy, and instantly swam off to the ship and apprised the crew 
of their danger. Instead, therefore, of proceeding to their work at the 
fort, as usual, the following morning, they made an attack upon the natives, 
killed and wounded several, and obliged the others to retire inland. 
Great dissatisfaction and difference of opinion now arose among the crew: 
some were for abandoning the fort and returning to Otaheite; while others 
were for proceeding to the Marquesas; but the majority were at, that 
time for completing what they had begun, and remaining at Tobouai. At 
length the continued state of suspense in which they were kept by the 
natives made them decide to return to Otaheite, though much against the 
inclination of Christian, who in vain expostulated with them on the folly 
of such a resolution, and the certain detection that must ensue. 

The implements being embarked, they proceeded, therefore, a second 
time to Otaheite, and were again well received by their friends, who 
replenished their stock of provisions. During the passage Christian 
formed his intention of proceeding in the ship to some distant uninhabited 
island, for the purpose of permanently settling, as the most likely means 
of escaping the punishment which he well knew awaited him in the event 
of being discovered. On communicating this plan to his shipmates he 
found only a few inclined to assent to it; but no objections were offered 
by those who dissented, to his taking the ship ; all they required was an 
equal distribution of such provisions and stores as might be useful. 
Young, Brown, Mills, Williams, Quintal, M’Coy, Martin, Adams, and six 
natives (four of Otaheile and two of Tobouai) determined to follow the 
fate of Christian. Remaining, therefore, only twenty-four hours at Ota¬ 
heite, they took leave of their own comrades, and having invited on board 
several of the women with the feigned purpose of taking leave, the cables 
were cut and they were carried off to sea. 

The mutineers now bade adieu to all the world, save the few individuals 
associated with them in exile. But where that exile should be passed, 
was yet undecided: the Marquesas Islands were first mentioned; but 
Christian, on reading Captain Carteret’s account of Pitcairn Island, thought 
it better adapted to the purpose, and accordingly shaped a course thither. 
They reached it not many days afterward ; and Christian, with one of 
the seamen, landed in a little nook, which was afterward found very 
16 


MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 


242 

convenient for disembarkation. They soon traversed the island sufficiently 
to be satisfied that it was exactly suited to their wishes. It possessed 
water, wood, a good soil, and some fruits. The anchorage in the offing 
was very bad, and landing for boats extremely hazardous. The mountains 
were so difficult of access, and the pass so narrow, that they might be 
maintained by a few persons against an army ; and there were several 
caves, to which, in case of necessity, they could retreat, and where, as 
long as their provisions lasted, they might bid defiance to their pursuers. 
With this intelligence they returned on board, and brought the ship to an 
anchor in a small bay on the northern side of the island, where everything 
that could be of utility was landed, and where it was agreed to destroy 
the ship, either by running her on shore, or burning her. Christian, 
Adams, and the majority, were for the former expedient; but while they 
went to the forepart of the ship, to execute this business, Matthew Quintal 
set fire to the carpenter’s store-room. The vessel burnt to the water’s 
edge, and then drifted upon the rocks, where the remainder of the wreck 
was burnt for fear of discovery. This occurred on the twenty-third of 
January, 1790. 

A suitable spot of ground for a village was fixed upon, with the exception 
of which the island was divided into equal portions, but to the exclusion 
of the poor blacks, who, being only friends of the seamen, were not con¬ 
sidered as entitled to the same privileges. Obliged to lend their assistance 
to the others in order to procure a subsistence, they thus, from being 
their friends, in the course of time became their slaves. No discontent, 
however, was manifested, and they willingly assisted in the cultivation 
of the soil. In clearing the space that was allotted to the village, a row 
of trees was left between it and the sea, for the purpose of concealing 
the houses from the observation of any vessels that might be passing, 
and nothing was allowed to be erected that might in any way attract 
attention. Until these houses were finished, the sails of the Bounty were 
converted into tents ; and when no longer required for that purpose, 
became very acceptable as clothing. Thus supplied with all the neces¬ 
saries of life, and some of its luxuries, they felt their condition comfortable 
even beyond their most sanguine expectation, and everything went on 
peaceably and prosperously for about two years, at the expiration of which, 
Williams, who had the misfortune to lose his wife about a month after 
his arrival, by a fall from a precipice while collecting birds’ eggs, became 
dissatisfied, and threatened to leave the island in one of the boats of the 
Bounty, unless he had another wife ; an unreasonable request, as it could 
not be complied with, except at the expense of the happiness of one of 
his companions: but Williams, actuated by selfish considerations alone, 
persisted in his threat, and the Europeans not willing to part with him, 
on account of his usefulness as an armorer, constrained one of the blacks 
to bestow his wife upon the applicant. The blacks, outrageous at this 
second act of flagrant injustice, made common cause with their companion, 
and matured a plan of revenge upon their aggressor, which, had it suc¬ 
ceeded, would have proved fatal to all the Europeans. Fortunately, the 
secret was imparted to the women, who ingeniously communicated it to 
the white men in a song, of which the words were, “ Why does black 
men sharpen ax? To kill white men.” The instant Christian became 
aware of the plot, he seized his gun and went in search of the blacks; 
but with a view only of showing them that their scheme was discovered, 
and thus by timely interference endeavoring to prevent the execution of 
it. He met one of them (Ohoo) at a little distance from the village, taxed 


MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 


243 

him with the conspiracy, and, in order to intimidate him, discharged his 
gun, which he had humanely loaded with powder only. Ohoo, however, 
imagining otherwise, and that the bullet had missed its object, derided 
his unskillfulness, and fled into the woods, followed by his accomplice 
Talaloo, who had been deprived of his wife. The remaining blacks, 
finding their plot discovered, purchased pardon by promising to murder 
their accomplices, who had fled; which they afterward performed by an 
act of the most odious treachery. Ohoo was betrayed and murdered by 
his own nephew ; and Talaloo, after an ineffectual attempt made upon him 
by poison, fell by the hands of his friend and his wife, the very woman on 
whose account all the disturbance began, and whose injuries Talaloo felt 
he was revenging in common with his own. 

Tranquillity was by these means restored, and preserved for about two 
years ; at the expiration of which, dissatisfaction was again manifested by 
the blacks, in consequence of oppression and ill treatment, principally by 
Quintal and M’Coy. Meeting with no compassion or redress from their 
masters, a second plan to destroy their oppressors was matured, and, 
unfortunately, too successfully executed. 

It was agreed that two of the blacks, Timoa and Nehow, should desert 
from their masters, provide themselves with arms, and hide in the woods, 
but maintain a frequent communication with the other two, Tetaheite and 
Menalee; and that on a certain day they should attack and put to death 
all the Englishmen, when at work in their plantations. Tetaheite, to 
strengthen the party of the blacks on this day, borrowed a gun and am¬ 
munition of his master, under the pretence of shooting hogs, which had 
become wild and very numerous ; but instead of using it in this way, he 
joined his accomplices, and with them fell upon Williams and shot him. 
Martin, who was at no great distance, heard the report of the musket, 
and exclaimed, “ Well done! we shall have a glorious feast to-day!” 
supposing that a hog had been shot. The party proceeded from Williams’ 
toward Christian’s plantation, where Menalee, the other black, was at work 
with Mills and M’Coy ; and, in order that the suspicions of the whites 
might not be excited by the report they had heard, requested Mills to 
allow him (Menalee) to assist them in bringing home the hog they pre¬ 
tended to have killed. Mills agreed; and the four, being united, 
proceeded to Christian, who was working at his yam-plot, and shot him. 
Thus fell a man, who, from being the reputed ringleader of the mutiny, 
has obtained an unenviable celebrity, and whose crime, if anything can 
excuse mutiny, may, perhaps, be considered as in some degree palliated by 
the tyranny which led to its commission. M’Coy, hearing his groans, 
observed to Mills, “there was surely some person dying;” but Mills 
replied, “It is only Mainmast (Christian’s wife) calling her children to 
dinner.” The white men being yet too strong for the blacks to risk a 
conflict with them, it was necessary to concert a plan, in order to separate 
Mills and M’Coy. Two of them accordingly secreted themselves in 
M’Coy’s house, and Tetaheite ran and told him that the two blacks who 
had deserted were stealing things out of his house. M’Coy instantly 
hastened to detect them, and on entering was fired at; but the ball passed 
him. M’Coy immediately communicated the alarm to Mills, and advised 
him to seek shelter in the woods ; but Mills, being quite satisfied that one 
of the blacks whom he had made his friend would not suffer him to bo 
killed, determined to remain. M’Coy, less confident, ran in search of 
Christian, but finding him dead, joined Quintal (who was already apprised 
of the work of destruction, and had sent his wife to give the alarm to the 


MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 


244 

others,) and fled with him to the woods. Mills had scarcely been left 
alone, when the two blacks fell upon him, and he became a victim to his 
misplaced confidence in the fidelity of his friend. Martin and Brown 
were next separately murdered by Menalee and Tenina; Menalee ef¬ 
fecting with a maul what the musket had left unfinished. Tenina, it is 
said, wished to save the life of Brown, and fired at him with powder only, 
desiring him, at the same time, to fall as if killed; but, unfortunately 
rising too soon, the other black, Menalee, shot him. 

Adams was first apprised of his danger by Quintal’s wife, who, in hur¬ 
rying through his plantation, asked why he was working at such a time ? 
Not understanding the question, but seeing her alarmed, he followed her, 
and was almost immediately met by the blacks, whose appearance exciting 
suspicion, he made his escape into the woods. After remaining three or 
four hours, Adams, thinking all was quiet, stole to his yam-plot for a supply 
of provisions; his movements, however, did not escape the vigilance of the 
blacks, who attacked and shot him through the body, the ball entering at his 
right shoulder, and passing out through his throat. He fell upon his side, 
and was instantly assailed by one of them with the butt-end of the gun ; 
but he parried the blows at the expense of a broken finger. Tetaheite then 
placed his gun to his side, but it fortunately missed fire twice. Adams, 
recovering a little from the shock of the wound, sprung on his legs, and 
ran off with as much speed as he was able, and fortunately outstripped 
his pursuers, who, seeing him likely to escape, offered him protection if 
he would stop. Adams, much exhausted by his wound, readily accepted 
their terms, and was conducted to Christian’s house, where he was kindly 
treated. Here this day of bloodshed ended, leaving only four Englishmen 
alive out of nine. It was a day of emancipation to the blacks, who were 
now masters of the island, and of humiliation and retribution to the whites. 
Young, who was a great favorite with the women, and had, during this 
attack, been secreted by them, was now also taken to Christian’s house. 
The other two, M’Coy and Quintal, who had always been the great op¬ 
pressors of the blacks, escaped to the mountains, where they supported 
themselves upon the produce of the ground about them. 

The party in the village lived in tolerable tranquillity for about a week; 
at the expiration of which, the men of color began to quarrel about the 
right of choosing the women whose husbands had been killed ; which 
ended in Menalee’s shooting Timoa as he sat by the side of Young’s wife, 
accompanying her song with his flute. Timoa not dying immediately, 
Menalee reloaded, and deliberately dispatched him by a second discharge. 
He afterward attacked Tetaheite, who was condoling with Young’s wife 
for the loss of her favorite black, and would have murdered him also, 
but for the interference of the women. Afraid to remain longer in the 
village, he escaped to the mountains and joined Quintal and M’Coy, who, 
though glad of his service, at first received him with suspicion. This 
great acquisition to their force enabled them to bid defiance to the opposite 
party ; and to show their strength, and that they were provided with 
muskets, they appeared on a ridge of mountains, within sight of the village, 
and fired a volley which so alarmed the others that they sent Adams to 
say, if they would kill the black man, Menalee, and return to the village, 
they would all be friends again. The terms were so far complied with 
that Menalee was shot; but, apprehensive of the sincerity of the remaining 
blacks, they refused to return while they were alive. 

Adams says it was not long before the widows of the white men bo 
deeply deplored their loss, that they determined to revenge their death. 


MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 


245 

and concerted a plan to murder the only two remaining men of color. 
Another account, communicated by the islanders, is that it was only part 
of a plot formed at the same time that Menalee was murdered, which 
could not be put in execution before. However this may be, it was 
equally fatal to the poor blacks. The arrangement was, that Susan should 
murder one of them, Tetaheite, while he was sleeping by the side of his 
favorite ; and that Young should, at the same instant, upon a signal being 
given, shoot the other, Nehow. The unsuspecting Tetaheite retired, as 
usual, and fell by the blow of an ax; the other was looking at Young 
loading his gun, which he supposed was for the purpose of shooting hogs, 
and requested him to put in a good charge, when he received the deadly 
contents. 

In this manner the existence of the last of the men of color terminated, 
who, though treacherous and revengeful, had, it is feared, too much cause 
for complaint. The accomplishment of this fatal scheme was immediately 
communicated to the two absentees, and their return solicited. But so 
many instances of treachery had occurred, that they would not believe 
the report, though delivered by Adams himself, until the hands and heads 
of the deceased were produced, which being done, they returned to the 
village. This eventful day was the third of October, 1793. There were 
now left upon the island, Adams, Young, M’Coy, and Quintal, ten women, 
and some children. Two months after this period, Young commenced a 
manuscript journal, which affords a good insight into the state of the 
island, and the occupations of the settlers. From it we learn, that they 
lived peaceably together, building their houses, fencing in and cultivating 
their grounds, fishing, and catching birds, and constructing pits for the 
purpose of entrapping hogs, which had become very numerous and wild, 
as well as injurious to the yam-crops. The only discontent appears to 
have been among the women, who lived promiscuously with the men, 
frequently changing their abode. 

Young says, March twelfth, 1794, “ Going over to borrow a rake, 
to rake the dust off my ground, I saw Jenny having a skull in her hand: 
I asked her whose it was? and was told it was Jack Williams’s. I desired 
it might be buried: the women who were with Jenny gave me for answer, it 
should not. I said it should ; and demanded it accordingly. I was asked 
the reason why I, in particular, should insist on such a thing, when the 
rest of the white men did not? I said, if they gave them leave to keep 
the skulls above ground, I did not. Accordingly when I saw M’Coy, 
Smith, and Mat. Quintal, I acquainted them with it, and said, I thought 
that if the girls did not agree to give up the heads of the five white men 
in a peaceable manner, they ought to be taken by force, and buried.” 
About this time the women appear to have been much dissatisfied ; and 
Young’s journal declares that, “since the massacre, it has been the desire 
of the greater part of them to get some conveyance, to enable them to 
leave the island.” This feeling continued, and on the fourteenth of April, 
1794, was so strongly urged, that the men began to build them a boat; 
but wanting planks and nails, Jenny, who now resides at Otaheite, in her 
zeal tore up the boards of her house, and endeavored, though without 
success, to persuade some others to follow her example. 

On the thirteen of August following, the vessel was finished, and on the 
fifteenth she was launched: but, as Young says, “according to expectation 
she upset,” and it was most fortunate for them that she did so ; for had 
they launched out upon the ocean, where could they have gone? or what 
could a few ignorant women have done by themselves, drifting upon the 


MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 


246 

waves, but ultimately have fallen a sacrifice to their folly? However, 
the fate of the vessel was a great disappointment, and they continued much 
dissatisfied with their condition; probably not without some reason, as 
they were kept in great subordination, and were frequently beaten by 
M’Coy and Quintal, who appear to have been of very quarrelsome dis¬ 
positions ; Quintal in particular, who proposed “not to laugh, joke, or 
give anything to any of the girls.” On the sixteenth of August they dug 
a grave, and buried the bones of the murdered people: and on October 
third, 1794, they celebrated the murder of the black men at Quintal’s 
house. On the eleventh of November a conspiracy of the women to kill 
the white men in their sleep was discovered ; upon which they were all 
seized, and a disclosure ensued ; but no punishment, appears to have been 
inflicted upon them, in consequence of their promising to conduct them¬ 
selves properly, and never again to give any cause “ even to suspect their 
behavior.” However, though they were pardoned, Young observes “ We 
did not forget their conduct; and it was agreed among us, that the first 
female who misbehaved should be put to death ; and this punishment was 
to be repeated on each offense until we could discover the real intentions 
of the women.” Young appears to have suffered much from mental 
perturbation in consequence of these disturbances; and observes of 
himself on the two following days, that “he was bothered and idle.” 

The suspicions of the men induced them, on the fifteenth, to conceal 
two muskets in the bush, for the use of any person who might be so 
fortunate as to escape, in the event of an attack being made. On the 
thirtieth of November, the women again collected and attacked them ; 
but no lives were lost, and they returned on being once more pardoned, 
but were again threatened with death the next time they misbehaved. 
Threats thus repeatedly made, and as often unexecuted, as might be 
expected, soon lost their effect, and the women formed a party whenever 
their displeasure was excited, and hid themselves in the unfrequented 
parts of the island, carefully providing themselves with firearms. In this 
manner the men were kept in continual suspense, dreading the result of 
each disturbance, as the numerical strength of the women was much 
greater than their own. 

On the fourth of May, 1795, two canoes were begun, and in two days 
completed. These were used for fishing, in which employment the 
people were frequently successful, supplying themselves with rock-fish 
and large mackerel. 

So little occurred in the year 1796, that one page records the whole 
of the events; and throughout the following year there are but three 
incidents worthy of notice. The first, their endeavor to procure a quantity 
of meat for salting; the next, their attempt to make syrup from the tea- 
plant (dracaena terminalis) and sugarcane; and the third, a serious accident 
that happened to M’Coy, who fell from a cocoanut tree and hurt his right 
thigh, sprained both his ancles and wounded his side. The occupations 
of the men continued similar to those already related, occasionally enliv¬ 
ened by visits to the opposite side of the island. They appear to have 
been more sociable; dining frequently at each other’s houses, and 
contributing more to the comfort of the women, who, on their part, gave 
no ground for uneasiness. There was also a mutual accommodation 
among them in regard to provisions, of which a regular account was 
taken. If one person was successful in hunting, he lent the others as 
much meat as they required, to be repaid at leisure ; and the same 
occurred with yams, taros, etc., so that they lived in a very domestic and 


MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 


247 

tranquil state. It unfortunately happened that M’Coy had been employed 
in a distillery in Scotland ; and being very much addicted to liquor, he 
tried an experiment with the tee-root, and on the twentieth April 1798, 
succeeded in producing a bottle of ardent spirit. This success induced 
his companion, Matthew Quintal, to “ alter his kettle into a still,” a con¬ 
trivance which unfortunately succeeded too well, as frequent intoxication 
was the consequence, with M’Coy in particular upon whom at length 
it produced fits of delirium; in one of which, he threw himself from a 
cliff and was killed. The melancholy fate of this man created so forcible 
an impression on the remaining few, that they resolved never again to 
touch spirits; and Adams, I have every reason to believe, to the day of 
his death kept his vow. 

The journal finishes nearly at the period of M’Coy’s death, which is 
not related in it: but we learned from Adams, that about 1799, Quintal 
lost his wife by a fall from the cliff* while in search of birds’ eggs; that 
he grew discontented, and, though there were several disposable women 
on the island, and he had already experienced the fatal effects of a similar 
demand, nothing would satisfy him but the wife of one of his companions. 
Of course neither of them felt inclined to accede to this unreasonable 
indulgence ; and he sought an opportunity of putting them both to death. 
He was fortunately foiled in his first attempt, but swore he would repeat 
it. Adams and Young, having no doubt he would follow up his resolution, 
and fearing he might be more successful in his next attempt, came to the 
conclusion, that their own lives were not safe while he was in existence, 
and that they were justified in putting him to death, which they did with 
an ax. 

Such was the melancholy fate of seven of the leading mutineers, who 
escaped from justice only to add murder to their former crimes; for though 
some of them may not have actually imbrued their hands in the blood 
of their fellow-creatures, yet all were accessary to the deed. 

As Christian and Young were descended from respectable parents, and 
had received educations suitable to their birth, it might be supposed that 
they felt their altered and degraded situation much more than the seamen, 
who were comparatively well off; but, if so, Adams says, they had the 
good sense to conceal it, as not a single murmur or regret escaped them; 
on the contrary, Christian was always cheerful, and his example was of 
the greatest service in exciting his companions to labor. He was naturally 
of a happy, ingenuous disposition, and won the good opinion and respect 
of all those who served under him ; which cannot be better exemplified 
than by his maintaining, under circumstances of great perplexity, the 
respect and regard of all who were associated with him up to the hour 
of his death ; and even at the period of our visit, Adams, in speaking of 
him, never omitted to say u Mr. Christian .” 

Adams and Young were now the sole survivors out of the fifteen males 
that landed upon the island. They were both, and more particularly 
Young, of a serious turn of mind; and it would have been wonderful, 
after the many dreadful scenes at which they had assisted, if the solitude 
and tranquillity that ensued had not disposed them to repentance. During 
Christian’s lifetime they had only once read the church service, but since 
his disease this had been regularly done on every Sunday. They now, 
however, resolved to have morning and evening family prayers, to add 
afternoon service to the duty of the Sabbath, and to train up their own 
children and those of their late unfortunate companions, in piety and virtue. 

^In the execution of this resolution, Young’s education enabled him to be 


MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 


248 

Of the greatest assistance ; but he was not long suffered to survive his 
repentance. An asthmatic complaint, under which he had for some time 
labored, terminated his existence about a year after the death of Quintal, 
and Adams was left the sole survivor of the misguided and unfortunate 
mutineers of the Bounty. The loss of his last companion was a great 
affliction to him, and was for some time most severely felt. It was a catas¬ 
trophe, however, that more than ever disposed him to repentance, and 
determined him to execute the pious resolution he had made, in the hope 
of expiating his offenses. 

His reformation could not, perhaps, have taken place at a more propitious 
moment. Out of nineteen children upon the island, there were several 
between the ages of seven and nine years ; who, had they been longer 
suffered to follow their own inclinations, might have acquired habits which 
it would have been difficult, if not impossible, for Adams to eradicate. 
The moment was therefore most favorable for his design, and his laudable 
exertions were attended by advantages both to the objects of his care and 
to his own mind, which surpassed his most sanguine expectations. He, 
nevertheless, had an arduous task to perform. Beside the children to be 
educated, the Otaheitan women were to be converted; and, as the example 
of the parents had a powerful influence over their children, he resolved 
to make them his first care. Here also his labors succeeded; the Ota- 
heitans were naturally of a tractable disposition, and gave him less trouble 
than he anticipated: the children also acquired such a thirst after Scrip¬ 
tural knowledge, that Adams in a short time had little else to do than to 
answer their inquiries and put them in the right way. As they grew up, 
they acquired fixed habits of morality and piety ; their colony improved ; 
intermarriages occurred: and they now form a happy and well regulated 
society, the merit of which, in a great degree, belongs to Adams, and 
tends to redeem the former errors of his life. 

The preceding facts in reference to the mutineers, came gradually to 
light in the course of years, from the visit of Captain Folger, an American, 
of the English ship Briton, and of Captain Beechy. Lieutenant Shillibeer 
of the Briton, gives the following graphic account of his unexpected visit 
to the island, in the year 1813. 

It was in the second watch when we made an island unknown to us. 
At daylight we proceeded to a more close examination, and soon perceived 
huts, cultivation, and people ; of the latter, some were making signs, 
others launching their little canoes through the surf, into which they 
threw themselves with great dexterity, and pulled toward us. They came 
along side, and for me to picture the wonder which was conspicuous in 
every countenance, at being hailed in perfect English, what was the name 
of the ship, and who commanded her, would be impossible—our surprise 
can alone be conceived. The captain answered, and now a regular 
conversation commenced. He requested them to come along side, and 
the reply was, “ We have no boat-hook to hold on by.” “ I will throw 
you a rope,” said the captain. “If you do we have nothing to make it 
fast to,” was the answer. However, they at length came on board, 
exemplifying not the least fear, but their astonishment was unbounded. 
After the friendly salutation of “Good morrow Sir,” from the first man who 
entered, (Mackey, for that was his name,) “ Do you know,” said he, “one 
William Bligh, in England?” This question threw a new light on the 
subject, and he was immediately asked if he knew one Christian, and the 
reply was given with so much natural simplicity, that I shall here use his 
proper words. “ Oh yes,” said he, “very well; his son is in the boat there 


MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 249 

coming up, his name is Friday Fletcher October Christian. His father 
is dead now—he was shot by a black fellow.” 

The questions which were now put were numerous, among which were 
the following: 

Q. At what age do you marry? 

A. Not before nineteen or twenty. 

Q. Are you allowed to have more than one wife? 

A. No! we can have but one, and it is wicked to have more. 

Q. Have you been taught any religion? 

A. Yes, a very good religion. 

Q. In what do you believe? 

A. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, etc. (Here he went through 
the whole of the Belief.) 

Q. Who first taught you this belief? 

A. John Adams says it was first by F. Christian’s order, and that he 
likewise caused a prayer to be said every day at noon. 

Q. And what is the prayer? 

A. It is—“I will arise and go to my Father, and say unto him, Father, 
I have sinned against Heaven, and before Thee, and am no more worthy 
of being called thy son.” 

Q. Do you continue to say this every day? 

A. Yes, we never neglect it. 

Q. What language do you commonly speak? 

A. Always English. 

Q. But you understand the Otaheitan? 

A. Yes, but not so well. 

Q. Do the old women speak English? 

A. Yes, but not so well as they understand it, their pronunciation is 
not good. 

Q. What countrymen do you call yourselves? 

A. Half English, and half Otaheite. 

Q. Who is your king? 

A. Why, King George to be sure. 

Q. Have you ever seen a ship before? 

A. Yes, we have seen four from the island, but only one stopped. 
Mayhew Folger was the captain ; I suppose you know him? No we do 
not know him. 

Q. How long did he stay? 

A. Two days. 

Q. Should you like to go to England? 

A. No! I cannot; I am married, and have a family. 

Before we had finished our interrogatories the hour of breakfast had 
arrived, and we solicited our half countrymen, as they styled themselves, 
to accompany us below, and partake of our repast, to which they acqui¬ 
esced without much ceremony. The circle in which we had surrounded 
them being opened, brought to the notice of Mackey, a little black terrier. 
He was at first frightened, ran behind one of the officers, and looking 
over his shoulder said, pointing to the dog, “I,know what that is, it is a 
dog; I never saw a dog before—will it bite?” After a short pause he 
addressed himself to Christian, saying with great admiration, u It is a 
pretty thing, too, to look at, is it not?” 

The whole of them were inquisitive, and in their questions as well as 
answers, betrayed a very great share of natural abilities. They asked 
the names of whatever they saw, and the purposes to which it was applied. 


MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 


250 

This, they would say, was pretty—that they did not like, and were greatly 
surprised at our having so many things which they were not possessed 
of in the island. 

The circumstance of the dog, the things which at each step drew their 
attention or created their wonder, retarded us on our road to the breakfast 
table, but arriving there, we had a new cause for surprise. The astonish¬ 
ment which before had been so strongly demonstrated in them, was now 
become conspicuous in us, even to a much greater degree than when 
they hailed us in our native language ; and I must here confess I blushed 
when I saw nature in its most simple state, offer that tribute of respect 
to the Omnipotent Creator, which from education I did not perforn^, nor 
from society had been taught its necessity. Before they began to eat; 
on their knees, and with hands uplifted, did they implore permission to 
partake in peace what was set before them, and when they had eaten 
heartily, resuming their former attitude, offered a fervent prayer of thanks¬ 
giving for the indulgence they had just experienced. Our omission of 
this ceremony did not escape their notice, for Christian asked me whether 
it was not customary with us also. Here nature was triumphant, for I 
should do myself an irreparable injustice, did I not with candor acknow¬ 
ledge, I was both embarrassed and wholly at a loss for a sound reply, and 
evaded this poor fellow’s question by drawing his attention to the cow, 
which was then looking down the hatchway, and as he had never seen 
any of the species before, it was a source of mirth and gratification to him. 

The hatred of these people to the blacks is strongly rooted, and which 
doubtless owes its origin to the early quarrels which Christian and his 
followers had with the Otaheitans after their arrival at Pitcairn’s ; to 
illustrate which I shall here relate an occurrence which took place at 
breakfast. 

Soon after young Christian had begun, a West Indian black, who was 
one of the servants, entered the gun-room to attend table as usual. Chris¬ 
tian looked at him sternly, rose, asked for his hat, and said, “I don’t like 
that black fellow, I must go,” and it required some little persuasion, before 
he would again resume his seat. 

After coming along side the ship, so eager were they to get on board, 
that several of the canoes had been wholly abandoned, and gone adrift. 
This was the occasion of an anecdote which will show most conspicuously 
the good nature of their dispositions, and the mode resorted to in deciding 
a double claim. The canoes being brought back to the ship, the captain 
ordered that one of them should remain in each, when it became a question 
to which that duty should devolve ; however it was soon adjusted, for 
Mackey observed that he supposed they were all equally anxious to see 
the ship, and the fairest way would be for them to cast lots, as then there 
would be no ill will on either side. This was acceded to, and those to 
whom it fell to go into the boat, departed without a murmur. 

John Adams is a fine looking old man, approaching to sixty years of 
age. We conversed with him a long time, relative to the mutiny of the 
Bounty, and the ultimate fate of Christian. He denied being accessary 
to, or having the least knowledge of the conspiracy, but he expressed 
great horror at the conduct of Captain Bligh, not only toward his men, 
but officers also. I asked him if he had a desire to return to England, 
and I must confess his reply in the affirmative, caused me great surprize. 

He told me he was perfectly aware how deeply he was involved ; that 
by following the fortune of Christian, he had not only sacrificed every 
claim to his country, but that his life was the necessary forfeiture for 


MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 


251 

such an act, and he supposed would be exacted from him was he ever 
to return ; notwithstanding all these circumstances, nothing would be able 
to occasion him so much gratification as that of seeing once more, prior 
to his death, that country which gave him birth, and from which he had 
been so long estranged. 

There was a sincerity in his speech, I can badly describe it—but it had 
a very powerful influence in persuading me these were his real sentiments. 
My interest was excited to so great a degree, that 1 offered him a con¬ 
veyance for himself, with any of his family who chose to accompany him. 
He appeared pleased at the proposal, and as no one was then present, 
he sent for his wife and children. The rest of this little community 
surrounded the door. He communicated his desire, and solicited their 
acquiescence. Appalled at a request not less sudden than in opposition 
to their wishes, they were all at a loss for a reply. 

His charming daughter although inundated with tears, first broke the 
silence. 

“ Oh do not, sir,” said she, “take from me my father! do not take away 
my best—my dearest friend.” Her voice failed her—she was unable to 
proceed—leaned her head upon her hand, and gave full vent to her grief. 
His wife, too, (an Otaheitan) expressed a lively sorrow. The wishes of 
Adams soon became known among the others, who joined in pathetic 
solicitation for his stay on the island. Not an eye was dry—the big tear 
stood in those of the men—the women shed them in full abundance. I 
never witnessed a scene so fully affecting, or more replete with interest. 
To have taken him from a circle of such friends, would have ill become 
a feeling heart, to have forced him away in opposition to their joint and 
earnest entreaties, would have been an outrage on humanity. 

Those men who came on board, were finely formed, and of manly 
features. Their height about five feet ten inches. Their hair black and 
long, generally plaited into a tail. They wore a straw hat, similar to those 
worn by sailors, with a few feathers stuck into them by way of ornament. 
I spoke to young Christian, particularly of Adams, who assured me he 
was greatly respected, insomuch that no one acted in opposition to his 
wishes, and when they should lose him, their regret would be general. 
The intermarriages which had taken place among them, have been the 
occasion of a relationship throughout the colony. There seldom happens 
to be a quarrel, even of the most trivial nature, and then, (using their 
own term,) it is nothing more than a word of mouth quarrel, which is always 
referred to Adams for adjustment. 

Twelve years later, these interesting Islanders were visited by Captain 
Beechy, in the ship Blossom, from whom we derive the following addi¬ 
tional information. 

The Blossom was so different, or to use the expression of our visitors, 
“so rich,” compared with the other ships they had seen, that they were 
constantly afraid of giving or committing some injury, and would not even 
move without first asking permission. This diffidence gave us full occu¬ 
pation for some time, as our restless visitors, anxious to see everything, 
seldom directed their attention long to any particular object, or remained 
in one position or place. Having no latches to their doors, they were 
ignorant of the manner of opening ours; and we were constantly attacked 
on all sides with “ Please may I sit down, or get up, or go out of the 
cabin?” or, “ Please to open or shut the door.” Their applications were, 
however, made with such good nature and simplicity that it was impossible 
not to feel the greatest pleasure in paying attention to them. They very 


MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 


252 

soon learnt the Christian name of every officer in the ship, which they 
always used in conversation instead of the surname, and wherever a 
similarity to their own occurred, they attached themselves to that person 
as a matter of course. 

It was many hours after they came on board before the ship could get 
near the island, during which time they so ingratiated themselves with U9 
that we felt the greatest desire to visit their houses; and rather than pass 
another night at sea we put off in the boats, though at a considerable 
distance from the land, and accompanied them to the shore. We followed 
our guides past a rugged point, surmounted by tall spiral rocks, known to 
the islanders as St. Paul’s rocks, into a spacious iron-bound bay, where 
the Bounty found her last anchorage. In this bay, which is bounded by 
lofty cliffs almost inaccessible, it was proposed to land. Thickly-branched 
evergreens skirt the base of these hills, and in summer afford a welcome 
retreat from the rays of an almost vertical sun. In the distance are seen 
several high-pointed rocks which the pious highlanders have named after 
the most zealous of the Apostles, and outside of them is a square basaltic 
islet. Formidable breakers fringe the coast, and seem to present an 
insurmountable barrier to all access. 

The difficulty of landing was more than repaid by the friendly reception 
we met with on the beach from Hannah Young, a very interesting young 
woman, the daughter of Adams. In her eagerness to greet her father, 
she had outrun her female companions, for whose delay she thought it 
necessary in the first place to apologize, by saying they had all been over 
the hill, in company with John Buffet, to look at the ship, and were not 
yet returned. It appeared that John Buffet, who was a sea-faring man, 
ascertained that the ship was a man-of-war, and without knowing exactly 
why, became so alarmed for the safety of Adams that he either could not 
or would not answer any of the interrogations which were put to him. 
This mysterious silence set all the party in tears, as they feared he had 
discovered something adverse to their patriarch. At length his obduracy 
yielded to their entreaties; but before he explained the cause of his 
conduct, the boats were seen to put off from the ship, and Hannah im¬ 
mediately hurried to the beach to kiss the old man’s cheek, which she did 
with a fervency demonstrative of the warmest affection. Her apology for 
her companions was rendered unnecessary by their appearance on the 
steep and circuitous path down the mountain, who, as they arrived on the 
beach, successively welcomed us to their island, with a simplicity and 
sincerity which left no doubt of the truth of their professions. 

They almost all wore the cloth of the island: their dress consisted of 
a petticoat, and a mantle loosely thrown over the shoulders, and reaching 
to the ancles. Their stature was rather above the common height; and 
their limbs, from being accustomed to work and climb the hills, had ac¬ 
quired unusual muscularity; but their features and manners were 
perfectly feminine. Their complexion, though fairer than that of the 
men, was of a dark gipsy hue, but its deep color was less conspicuous, 
by being contrasted with dark glossy hair, which hung down over their 
shoulders in long waving tresses, nicely oiled: in front it was tastefully 
turned back from the forehead and temples, and was retained in that 
position by a chaplet of small red or white aromatic blossoms, newly 
gathered from the flower-tree, or from the tobacco plant; their counten¬ 
ances were lively and good-natured, their eyes dark and animated, and 
each possessed an enviable row of teeth. Such was the agreeable 
impression of their first appearance, which was heightened by the wish 


MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 


253 

expressed simultaneously by the whole group, that we were come to 
stay several days with them. As the sun was going down, we signified 
our desire to get to the village and to pitch the observatory before dark, 
and this was no sooner made known, than every instrument and article 
found a carrier. 

By the time the tent was up and the instruments secured, we were 
summoned to a meal, than which a less sumptuous fare would have satisfied 
appetites rendered keen by long abstinence and a tiresome journey. 
Our party divided themselves that they might not crowd one house in 
particular: Adams did not entertain; but at Christian’s I found a table 
spread with plates, knives, and forks; which, in so remote a part of the 
world, was an unexpected sight. They were, it is true, far from uniform ; 
but, by one article being appropriated for another, we all found something 
to put our portion upon; and but few of the natives were obliged to sub¬ 
stitute their fingers for articles which are indispensable to the comfort of 
more polished life. A smoking pig, by a skillful dissection, was soon 
portioned to every guest, but no one ventured to put its excellent qualities 
to the test until a lengthened Amen , pronounced by all the party, had 
succeeded an emphatic grace delivered by the village parson. “Turn £o,” 
was then the signal for attack, and as it is convenient that all the party 
should finish their meal about the same time, in order that one grace 
might serve for all, each made the most of his time. In Pitcairn’s Island 
it is not deemed proper to touch even a bit of bread without a grace before 
and after it, and a person is accused of inconsistency if he leaves off and 
begins again. So strict is their observance of this form, that we do not 
know of any instance in which it has been forgotten. On one occasion 
I had engaged Adams in conversation, and he incautiously took the first 
mouthful without having said his grace ; but before he had swallowed it, 
he recollected himself, and feeling as if he had committed a crime, 
immediately put away what he had in his mouth, and commenced his 
prayer. 

Welcome, cheer, hospitality, and good humor, were the characteristics 
of the feast; and never was their beneficial influence more practically 
exemplified than on this occasion, by the demolition of nearly all that was 
placed before us. With the exception of some wine we had brought with 
us, water was the only beverage. This was placed in a large jug at one 
end of the board, and, when necessary, was passed round the table—a 
ceremony at which, in Pitcairn’s Island in particular, it is desirable to be 
the first partaker, as the gravy of the dish is invariably mingled with the 
contents of the pitcher: the natives, who prefer using their fingers to forks, 
being quite indifferent whether they hold the vessel by the handle or by 
the spout. 

Notwithstanding these deficiencies, we made a very comfortable and 
hearty supper, heard many little anecdotes of the place, and derived much 
amusement from the singularity of the inquiries of our hosts. One regret 
only intruded itself upon the general conviviality, which we did not fail 
to mention, namely, that there was so wide a distinction between the sexes. 
This was the remains of a custom very common among the South Sea 
Islands, which in some places is carried to such an extent, that it imposes 
death upon the woman who shall eat in the presence of her husband ; 
and though the distinction between man and wife is not here carried 
to that extent, it is still sufficiently observed to exclude all the women 
from table, if there happens to be a deficiency of seats. In Pitcairn’s 
Island, they have settled ideas of right and wrong, to which they 


MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 


254 

obstinately adhere ; and, fortunately, they have imbibed them generally 
from the best source. 

In the instance in question, they have, however, certainly erred ; but 
of this tbev could not be persuaded, nor did they, I believe, thank us for 
our interference. Their argument was, that man was made first, and 
ought, conseqently, on all occasions, to be served first—a conclusion which 
deprived us of the company of the women at table, during the whole of 
our stay at the island. Far from considering themselves neglected, they 
very good-naturedly chatted with us behind our seats, and flapped away 
the flies, and by a gentle tap, accidentally or playfully delivered, reminded 
us occasionally of the honor that was done us. The conclusion of our 
meal was the signal for the women and children to prepare their own, to 
whom we resigned our seats, and strolled out to enjoy the freshness of 
the night. It was late by the time the women had finished, and we were 
not sorry when we were shown to the beds prepared for us. The mat¬ 
tress was composed of palm-trees, covered with native cloth ; the sheets 
were of the same material; and we knew, by the crackling of them, that 
they were quite new from the loom or beater. The whole arrangement 
was extremely comfortable, and highly inviting to repose, which the 
freshness of the apartment, rendered cool by a free circulation of air 
through its sides, enabled us to enjoy without any annoyance from heat 
or insects. One interruption only disturbed our first sleep; it was the 
pleasing melody of the evening hymn, which, after the lights were put 
out, was chaunted by the whole family in the middle of the room. In the 
morning also we were awoke by their morning hymn and family devotion. 
As we were much tired, and the sun’s rays had not yet found their way 
through the broad opening of the apartment, we composed ourselves to 
rest again; and on awaking found that all the natives were gone to their 
several occupations—the men to offer what assistance they could to our 
boats in landing, carrying burdens for the seamen, or to gather what fruits 
were in season. Some of the women had taken our linen to wash ; those 
whose turn it was to cook for the day were preparing the oven, the pig, 
and the yams ; and we could hear, by the distant reiterated strokes of the 
beater, that others were engaged in the manufacture of cloth. By our 
bedside had already been placed some ripe fruits ; and our hats were 
crowned with chaplets of the fresh blossom of the nono, or flower-tree, 
which the women had gathered in the freshness of the morning dew. On 
looking round the apartment, though it contained several beds, we found 
no partition, curtain, or screens ; they had not yet been considered neces¬ 
sary. So far, indeed, from concealment being thought of, when we were 
about to get up, the women, anxious to show their attention, assembled 
to wish us a good morning, and to inquire in what way they could best 
contribute to our comforts, and to present us with some little gift, which 
the produce of the island afforded. Many persons would have felt awkward 
at rising and dressing before so many pretty black-eyed damsels assembled 
in the center of a spacious room; but by a little habit we overcame this 
embarrassment; and found the benefit of their services in fetching water 
as we required it, and substituting clean linen for such as we pulled off. 

It must be remembered, that with these people, as with the other 
islanders of the South Seas, the custom has generally been to go naked, 
the maro with the men excepted, and with the women the petticoat, or 
kilt, with a loose covering over the bust, which, indeed, in Pitcairn’s 
Island, they are always careful to conceal; consequently, an exposure to 
that extent carried with it no feeling whatevef***T indelicacy ; or, I may 


MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 255 

safely add, that the Pitcairn Islanders would have been the last persons 
to incur the charge. 

In this little retreat there is not much variety, and the description of 
one day’s occupation serves equally for its successor. The dance is a 
recreation very rarely indulged in ; but as we particularly requested it, 
they would not refuse to gratify us. A large room in Quintal’s house 
was prepared for the occasion, and the company were ranged on one side 
of the apartment, glowing beneath a blazing string of doodoe nuts ; the 
musicians were on the other, under the direction of Arthur Quintal. He 
was seated upon the ground, as head musician, and had before him a large 
gourd, and a piece of musical wood (poron,) which he balanced nicely 
upon his toes, that there might be the less interruption to its vibrations, 
lie struck the instrument alternately with two sticks, and was accompanied 
by Dolly, who performed very skillfully with both hands upon a gourd, 
which had a longitudinal hole cut in one end of it; rapidly beating the 
orifice with the palms of her hands, and releasing it again with uncommon 
dexterity, so as to produce a tattoo, but in perfect time with the other 
instrument. A third performed upon the Bounty’s old copper fish-kettle, 
which formed a sort of bass. To this exhilarating music, three grown-up 
females stood up to dance, but with a reluctance which showed it was 
done only to oblige us, as they considered such performances an inroad 
upon their usual innocent pastimes. The figure consisted of such parts 
of the Otaheitan dance as were thought most decorous, and was little more 
than a shuffling of the feet, sliding past each other, and snapping their 
fingers; but even this produced, at times, considerable laughter from the 
female spectators, perhaps from some association of ridiculous ideas, 
which we, as strangers, did not feel; and, no doubt, had our opinion of the 
performance been consulted, it would have essentially differed from theirs. 
They did not long continue these diversions, from an idea that it was too 
great a levity to be continued long; and only the three before-mentioned 
ladies could be prevailed upon to exhibit their skill. One of the officers, 
with a view of contributing to the mirth of the colonists, had obligingly 
brought his violin on shore, and, as an inducement for them to dance again, 
offered to play some country dances and reels, if they would proceed ; 
but they could not be tempted to do so. They, however, solicited a 
specimen of the capabilities of the instrument, which was granted, and, 
though very well executed, did not give the satisfaction which we antici¬ 
pated. They had not yet arrived at a state of refinement to appreciate 
harmony, but were highly delighted with the rapid motion of the fingers, 
and always liked to be within sight of the instrument when it was played. 
They were afterward heard to say, that they preferred their own simple 
musical contrivance to the violin. They did not appear to have the least 
ear for music: one of the officers took considerable pains to teach them 
the hundredth psalm, that they might not chaunt all the psalms and hymns 
to the same air; but they did not evince the least aptitude or desire to 
learn it. 

The following day was devoted to the completion of our view of ihe 
island, of which the natives were anxious we should see every part. 
Having accordingly seen every part of the island, we had no further desire 
to ramble; and as the weather did not promise to be very fair, I left the 
observatory in the charge of Mr. Wolfe, and embarked, accompanied by 
old Adams. Soon after he came on board it began to blow, and for 
several days afterward the wind prevented any communication with the 
shore. The natives during this period were in great apprehension: they 


MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 


256 

went to the top of the island every morning to look for the ship; and 
once, when she was not to be seen, began to entertain the most serious 
doubts whether Adams would be returned to them ; but he, knowing we 
should close the island as soon as the weather would permit, was rather 
glad of the opportunity of remaining on board, and of again associating 
with his countrymen ; and, although he had passed his sixty-fifth year, 
joined in the dances and songs of the forecastle, and was always cheerful. 

On the sixteenth, the weather permitted a boat to be sent on shore, 
and Adams was restored to his anxious friends. Previous to quitting the 
ship, he said it would add much to his happiness if I would read the 
marriage ceremony to him and his wife, as he could not bear the idea of 
living with her without its being done. He had long wished for the 
arrival of a ship-of-war to set his conscience at rest on that point. Though 
Adams was aged, and the old woman had been blind and bed-ridden for 
several years, he made such a point of it, that it would have been cruel 
to refuse him. They were accordingly the next day duly united, and the 
event noted in a register by John Buffet. 

Wives upon Pitcairn Island, it may be imagined, are very scarce, as 
the same restrictions with regard to relationship exist as in England. 
George, in his early days, had fallen in love with Polly Young, a girl a 
little older than himself; but Polly, probably at that time liking some one 
else, and being at the age when young ladies’ expectations are at the 
highest, had incautiously said, she never would give her hand to George 
Adams. He, nevertheless, indulged a hope that she would one day relent; 
and to this end was unremitting in his endeavors to please her. In this 
expectation he was not mistaken; his constancy and attentions, and, as he 
grew into manhood, his handsome form, which George took every oppor¬ 
tunity of throwing into the most becoming attitudes before her, softened 
Polly’s heart into a regard for him, and, had nothing passed before, she 
would willingly have given him her hand. But the vow of her youth was 
not to be got over, and the love-sick couple languished on from day to day, 
victims to the folly of early resolutions. The weighty case was referred 
for our consideration; and the fears of the party were in some measure 
relieved by the result, which was, that it would be much better to marry 
than to continue unhappy, in consequence cf a hasty determination made 
before the judgment was matured ; they could not, however, be prevailed 
on to yield to our decision, and we left them unmarried. 

Another instance of a rigid performance of promise was exemplified 
in old Adams, who is anxious that his own conduct should form an example 
to the rising generation. In the course of conversation, he one day said 
he would accompany me up the mountain, if there was nobody else near; 
and it so happened,that on the day I had leisure to go, the young men were 
all out of the way. Adams, therefore, insisted upon performing his 
engagement, though the day was extremely hot, and the journey was much 
too laborious, in any weather, for his advanced period of life. He never¬ 
theless set out, adding, “I said I would go, and so I will; beside, without 
example, precept will have but little effect.” At the first valley he threw 
off his hat, handkerchief and jacket, and left them by the side of the path ; 
at the second his trowsers were cast aside into a bush ; and had he been 
alone, or provided with a maro, his shirt would certainly have followed: 
thus disencumbered, he boldly led the way, which was well known to him 
in early days ; but it was so long since he had trodden it, that we met 
with many difficulties. At length we reached the top of the ridge, which 
we were informed was the place where M’Coy and Quintal appeared in 


MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 


257 

defiance of the blacks. Adams felt so fatigued that he was now glad to 
lie down. The breeze here blew so hard and cold, that a shirt alone was 
of little use, and had he not been inured to all the changes of atmosphere, 
the sudden transition upon his aged frame must have been fatal. 

During the period we remained upon the island we were entertained 
at the board of the natives, sometimes dining with one person, and some¬ 
times with another: their meals, as I have before stated, were not confined 
to hours, and always consisted of baked pig, yams, and taro, and more 
rarely of sweet potatoes. The productions of the island being very limited, 
and intercourse with the rest of the world much restricted, it may be 
readily supposed their meals cannot be greatly varied. However they do 
their best with what they have, and cook it in different ways, the pig 
excepted, which is always baked. There are several goats upon the 
island, but they dislike their flesh as well as their milk. Yams constitute 
their principal food; these are boiled, baked, or made into pillihey, (cakes,) 
by being mixed with cocoanuts; or bruised and formed into a soup. 
Bananas are mashed, and made into pancakes, or, like the yam, united 
with the milk of the cocoanut, into pillihey, and eaten with molasses, 
extracted from the tee-root. The taro root, by being rubbed, makes a 
very good substitute for bread, as well as the bananas, plantain, and appai. 
Their common beverage is pure water, but they made for us a tea, ex¬ 
tracted from the tee-plant, flavored with ginger, and sweetened with the 
juice of the sugar-cane. When alone, this beverage and fowl soup are 
used only for such as are ill. They seldom kill a pig, but live mostly 
upon fruit and vegetables. The duty of saying grace was performed by 
John Buffet, a recent settler among them, and their clergyman ; but if he 
was not present, it fell upon the eldest of the company. They have all a 
great dislike to spirits, in consequence of M’Coy having killed himself by 
too free an indulgence in it; but wine in moderation is never refused. 
With this simple diet, and being in the daily habit of rising early, and taking 
a great deal of exercise in the cultivation of their grounds, it was not 
surprising that we found them so athletic and free from complaints. 
When illness does occur, their remedies are as simple as their manner 
of living, and are limited to salt water, hot ginger tea, or abstinence, 
according to the nature of the complaint. They have no medicines, nor 
do they appear to require any, as these remedies have hitherto been 
found sufficient. 

After their noontide meal, if their grounds do not require their attention, 
and the weather be fine, they go a little way out to sea in their canoes, 
and catch fish, of which they have several kinds, large and sometimes in 
abundance; but it seldom happens that they have this time to spare ; for 
the cultivation of the ground, repairing their boats, houses, and making 
fishing-lines, with other employments, generally occupies the whole of each 
day. At sunset they assemble at prayers as before, first offering their 
orison and thanksgiving, and then chaunting hymns. After this follows 
their evening meal, and at an early hour, having again said their prayers, 
and chaunted the evening hymn, they retire to rest; but before they 
sleep, each person again offers up a short prayer upon his bed. 

Such is the distribution of time among the grown people; the younger 
part attend at school at regular hours, and are instructed in reading, 
writing, and arithmetic. They have, very fortunately, found an able and 
willing master in John Buffet, who belonged to a ship which visited the 
island, and was so infatuated with their behavior, being himself naturally 
of a devout and serious turn of mind, that he resolved to remain among 
17 


MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 


258 

them ; and in addition to the instruction of the children, has taken upon 
himself the duty of clergyman, and is the oracle of the community. During 
the whole time I was with them I never heard them indulge in a joke, or 
other levity, and the practice of it is apt to give offense: they are so 
accustomed to take what is said in its literal meaning, that irony was 
always considered a falsehood in spite of explanation. They could not 
see the propriety of uttering what was not strictly true, for any purpose 
whatever. 

The Sabbath-day is devoted entirely to prayer, reading, and serious 
meditation. No boat is allowed to quit the shore, nor any work whatever 
to be done, cooking excepted, for which preparation is made the preceding 
evening. I attended their church on this day, and found the service well 
conducted; the prayers were read by Adams, and the lessons by Buffet, 
the service being preceded by hymns. The greatest devotion was apparent 
in every individual, and in the children there was a seriousness unknown 
in the younger part of our communities at home. In the course of the 
Litany they prayed for their sovereign and royal family with much apparent 
loyalty and sincerity. Some family prayers, which were thought appro¬ 
priate to their particular case, were added to the usual service ; and 
Adams, fearful of leaving out any essential part, read, in addition, all 
those prayers which are intended only as substitutes for others. A ser¬ 
mon followed, which was very well delivered by Buffet; and lest any part 
of it should be forgotten, or escape attention, it was read three times. 
The whole concluded with hymns, which were first sung by the grown 
people, and afterward by the children. The service thus performed was 
very long; but the neat and cleanly appearance of the congregation, the 
devotion that animated every countenance, and the innocence and sim¬ 
plicity of the little children, prevented the attendance from becoming 
wearisome. In about half an hour afterward we again assembled to prayers, 
and at sunset service was repeated ; so that, with their morning and 
evening prayers, they may be said to have church five times on a Sunday. 

Marriages and christenings are duly performed by Adams. A ring 
which has united every person on the island is used for the occasion, and 
given according to the prescribed form. The age at which this is allowed 
to take place, with the men, is after they have reached their twentieth, 
and with the women, their eighteenth year. 

All which remains to be said of these excellent people is, that they 
appear to live together in perfect harmony and contentment; to be virtuous, 
religious, cheerful, and hospitable, beyond the limits of prudence; to be 
patterns of conjugal and parental affection; and to have very few vices. 
We remained with them many days, and their unreserved manners gave 
us the fullest opportunity of becoming acquainted with any faults they 
might have possessed. 

The Pitcairn islanders are tall, robust, and healthy. Their average 
height is five feet ten inches ; the tallest person is six feet and one quarter 
of an inch ; and the shortest of the adults is five feet nine inches and one 
eighth. Their limbs are well proportioned, round and straight; their 
feet turning a little inward. The boys promise to be equally as tall as 
their fathers; one of them whom we measured was, at eight years of age, 
four feet one inch; and another, at nine years, four feet three inches. 
Their simple food and early habits of exercise give them a muscular 
power and activity not often surpassed. It is recorded among the feats 
of strength which these people occasionally evince, that two of the strongest 
on the island, George Young and Edward Quintal, have each carried, at 


MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 


259 

one time, without inconvenience, a kedge anchor, two sledge hammers, 
and an armorer’s anvil, amounting to upward of six hundred weight; and 
that Quintal, at another time, carried a boat twenty-eight feet in length. 
In the water they are almost as much at home as on land, and can remain 
nearly a day in the sea. They frequently swam round their little island, 
the circuit of which is at least seven miles. When the sea beat heavily 
on the island they have plunged into the breakers, and swam to sea beyond 
them. This they sometimes did pushing a barrel of water before them, 
when it could be got off in no other way, and in this manner we procured 
several tons of water without a single cask being stove. 

Their features are regular and well-looking, without being handsome. 
Their eyes are bright and generally hazel, though in one or two instances 
they are blue, and some have white speckles on the iris; the eyebrows 
being thin, and rarely meeting. The nose, somewhat flat, and rather 
extended at the nostrils, partakes of the Otaheitan form, as do the lips, 
which are broad, and strongly sulcated. Their ears are moderately large, 
and the lobes are invariably united to the cheek; they are generally 
perforated when young, for the reception of flowers, a very common 
custom among the natives of the South Sea Islands. The hair, in the 
first generation, is, with one exception only, deep black, sometimes curly, 
but generally straight; they allow it to go long, keep it very clean, and always 
well supplied with cocoanut oil. Whiskers are not common, and the 
beards are thin. The teeth are regular and white ; but are often, in the 
males, disfigured by a deficiency in enamel, and by being deeply furrowed 
across. They have generally large heads, elevated in the line of the 
occiput. Their complexion, in the first generation, is, in general, a dark 
gipsy hue: there are, however, exceptions to this; some are fairer, and 
others much darker. 

The women are nearly as muscular as the men, and taller than the 
generality of their sex. Polly Young, who is not the tallest upon the 
island, measured five feet nine inches and a half. Accustomed to per¬ 
form all domestic duties, to provide wood for cooking, which is there a 
work of some labor, as it must be brought from the hills, and sometimes to 
till the ground, their strength is in proportion to their muscularity ; and 
they are no less at home in the water than the men. 

The treatment of their children differs from that of our own country, 
as the infant is bathed three times a day in cold water, and is sometimes 
not weaned for three or four years ; but as soon as that takes place it is 
fed upon “popoe,” made with ripe plantains and boiled taro rubbed into 
paste. Upon this simple nourishment children are reared to a more 
healthy state than in other countries, and are free from fevers and other 
complaints peculiar to the greater portion of the world. Nothing is more 
extraordinary in the history of the island than the uniform good health of 
the children ; the teething is easily got over, they have no bowel com¬ 
plaints, and are exempt from those contagious diseases which affect 
children in large communities. 

The women have all learned the art of midwifery: parturition generally 
takes place during the night time ; the duration of labor is seldom longer 
than five hours, and has not yet in any case proved fatal. There is no 
instance of twins, nor of a single miscarriage, except from accident. 

The number of persons on Pitcairn Island in December, 1825, amounted 
to sixty-six. The total number of children left by the white settlers was 
fourteen, of whom two died a natural death ; one was seized with fits, 
to which he was subject, while in the water, and was drowned; and one 


260 


MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. 


was killed by accident, leaving ten, as above. Of the grandchildren, or 
second generation, there was also another male who died an accidental 
death. There have, therefore, been sixty-two births in the period of 
thirty-five years, from the 23d January, 1790, to the 23d December, 1825, 
and only two natural deaths. 

Before we close this interesting account, a brief notice should be taken 
of the fate of that portion of the mutineers, who separated themselves 
from the ringleader, Christian, at Otaheite. 

The intelligence of the mutiny, and the suffering of Bligh and his 
companions, naturally excited a great sensation in England. Bligh was 
immediately promoted to the rank of commander, and Captain Edwards 
was dispatched to Otaheite, in the Pandora frigate, with instructions to 
search for the Bounty and her mutinous crew, and bring them to England. 
The Pandora reached Matavai Bay on the twenty-third of March, 1791 ; 
and even before she had come to anchor, Joseph Coleman, formerly 
armorer of the Bounty, pushed off from shore in a canoe, and came on 
board. In the course of two days afterward, the whole of the remainder 
of the Bounty’s crew, (in number sixteen,) then on the island, surrendered 
themselves, with the exception of two, who fled to the mountains, where, 
as it afterward appeared, they were murdered by the natives. 

The Pandora, with the mutineers on board, was subsequently wrecked 
on the west of New Holland—thirty-four of her crew and four of the 
prisoners perishing in her. The survivors eventually reached England. 
A court-martial was soon after held, when six of the ten mutineers were 
found guilty, and condemned to death—the other four were acquitted. 
Only three of the six, however, were executed. 

In consequence of a representation made by Captain Beechy, the 
British government sent out Captain Waldegrave in 1830, in the Seringa- 
patam, with a supply of sailors’ bluejackets and trousers, flannels, stockings 
and shoes, women’s dresses, spades, mattocks, shovels, pickaxes, trowels, 
rakes, etc. He found their community increased to about seventy-nine, 
all exhibiting the same unsophisticated and amiable characteristics as we 
have before described. Other two Englishmen had settled among them ; 
one of them, called Nobbs, a low-bred, illiterate man, a self-constituted 
missionary, who was endeavoring to supersede Buffet in his office of 
religious instructor. The patriarch Adams, it was found, had died in 
March, 1829, aged sixty-five. While on his deathbed, he had called the 
heads of families together, and urged upon them to elect a chief; which, 
however, they had not yet done ; but the greatest harmony still prevailed 
among them, notwithstanding Nobbs’ exertions to form a party of his own. 
Captain Waldegrave thought that the island, which is about four miles 
square, might be able to support a thousand persons, upon reaching which 
number they would naturally emigrate to other islands. 

Such is the account of this most singular colony, originating in crime 
and bloodshed. Of all the repentant criminals on record, the most inter¬ 
esting, perhaps, is John Adams; nor do we know where to find a more 
beautiful example of the value of early instruction than in the history of 
this man, who, having run the full career of nearly all kinds of vice, was 
checked by an interval of leisurely reflection, and the sense of new duties 
awakened by the power of natural affections. 


HOW THEY LIVE 


ON BOARD OF AN 


AMERICAN MAN OF WAR: 


BEING THE EXPERIENCES OK A 8AILOB IN THE 

UNITED STATES NAVY.* 


“ All hands up anchor! Man the capstan!” 

All was ready ; boats hoisted in, stun’ sail gear rove, messenger passed, 
capstan-bars in their places, accommodation-ladder below ; and in glorious 
spirits, we sat down to dinner. In the ward-room, the lieutenants were 
passing round their oldest Port, and pledging their friends; in the steerage, 
the middies were busy raising loans to liquidate the demands of their 
laundress, or else—in the navy phrase—preparing to pay their creditors 
with a flying fore-tojpsail. On the poop, the captain was looking to 
windward ; and in his grand, inaccessible cabin, the high and mighty 
commodore sat silent and stately, as the statue of Jupiter in Dodona. 

It was on the gun-deck that our dinners were spread ; all along between 
the guns ; and there, as we cross-legged sat, you would have thought a 
hundred farm-yards and meadows were nigh. Such a cackling of ducks, 
chickens, and ganders; such a lowing of oxen, and bleating of lambkins, 
penned up here and there along the deck, to provide sea repasts for the 
officers. 

“All hands up anchor!” 

When that order was given, how we sprang to the bars, and heaved 
round that capstan—round, round it spun like a sphere, keeping time with 
our feet to the time of the fifer, till the cable was straight up and down, 
and the ship with her nose in the water. 

* “Heave and pull! unship your bars, and make sail!” 

It was done:—bar-men, nipper men, tierers, veerers, idlers and all, 
scrambled up the ladder to the braces and halyards; while like monkeys, 
the sail-loosers ran out on those broad boughs, or yards ; and down fell 
the sails like white clouds from the ether — topsails, topgallants, and 
royals ; and away we ran with the halyards, till every sheet was distended. 

“ Once more to the bars!” 

“ Heave, my hearties, heave hard!” 

With a jerk and a yerk, we broke ground; and up to our bows came 
several thousand pounds of old iron, in the shape of our ponderous anchor. 

In merchantmen the seamen are divided into watches—starboard and 
larboard—taking their turn at the ship’s duty by night. This plan is 


♦Abridged from “White Jacket, or the World in a Man-of-war,” by Herman Mel¬ 
ville, a writer of great ability in his peculiar line. This large 12mo., of 465 pages, 
gives the most faithful sketches of any work of the kind extant, and to which we 
take pleasure in referring the reader for those full details foreign to the volume in 
hand. 

(261) 




262 HOW THEY LIVE IN AN AMERICAN MAN OF WAR. 

followed in all men-of-war. But in all men-of-war, beside this division, 
there are others, rendered indispensable from the great number of men, 
and the necessity of precision and discipline. Not only are particular 
bands assigned to the three tops , but in getting under weigh, or any other 
proceeding requiring all hands, particular men of these bands are assigned 
to each yard of the tops. Thus, when the order is given to loose the 
main-royal, a particular individual flies to obey it; and no one but him. 
Also, in tacking ship, reefing topsails, or “coming to,” every man of a 
frigate’s five-hundred-strong, knows his own special place, and is infallibly 
found there. He sees nothing else, attends to nothing else, and will stay 
there till grim death or an epaulet orders him away. Were it not for 
these regulations a man-of-war’s crew would be nothing but a mob. 

Now the fore, main, and mizzen-top-men of each watch—starboard and 
larboard — are at sea respectively subdivided into quarter-watches; 
which regularly relieve each other in the tops to which they may belong; 
while, collectively, they relieve the whole larboard watch of topmen. 
Beside these topmen, who are always made up of active sailors, there are 
sheet-anchor-men—old veterans all—whose place is on the forecastle ; 
the foreyard, anchors, and all the sails on the bowsprit being under their 
care. They are an old weather-beaten set, culled from the most experi¬ 
enced seamen on board. These are the fellows, who spin interminable 
yarns about Decatur, Hull, and Bainbridge ; and carry about their persons 
bits of “Old Ironsides,” as Catholics do the wood of the true cross. These 
are the fellows, that some officers never pretend to damn, however much 
they may anathematize others. These are the fellows, whose society 
most of the youngster midshipmen much affect; from whom they learn 
their best seamanship; and to whom they look up as veterans ; if so be. 
that they have any reverence in their souls, which is not the case with 
all midshipmen. 

Then, there is the after-guard , stationed on the quarter-deck; who, 
under the quarter-masters and quarter-gunners, attend to the mainsail 
and spanker, and help haul the main-brace, and other ropes in the stern 
of the vessel. The duties assigned to the after-guard’s-men being com¬ 
paratively light and easy, and but little seamanship being expected from 
them, they are composed chiefly of landsmen ; the least robust, least 
hardy, and least sailor-like of the crew ; and being stationed on the quarter¬ 
deck, they are generally selected with some eye to their personal appear¬ 
ance. Hence,-they are mostly slender young fellows, of a genteel figure 
and gentlemanly address ; not weighing much on a rope, but weighing 
considerably in the estimation of all foreign ladies who may chance to 
visit the ship. Then, there are the Waisters, always stationed on the 
gun-deck. These haul aft the fore and main-sheets, beside being subject 
to ignoble duties; attending to the drainage and sewerage below hatches. 
These fellows are all sorry chaps, who never put foot in ratlin, or venture 
above the bulwarks. Inveterate “sons of farmers” with the hayseed yet 
in their hair, they are consigned to the congenial superintendence of the 
chicken-coops, pig-pens, and potato-lockers. These are generally placed 
amidships, on the gun-deck of a frigate, between the fore and main-hatches; 
and comprise so extensive an area, that it much resembles the market¬ 
place of a small town. They are the tag-rag and bob-tail of the crew ; 
and he who is good for nothing else is good enough for a Waister. 

Three decks down—spar-deck, gun-deck, and berth-deck—and we 
come to a parcel of “holders,” who burrow, like rabbits in warrens, among 
the water-tanks, casks, and cables. They are a lazy, lumpish, torpid set; 


HOW THEY LIVE IN AN AMERICAN MAN OF WAR. 


263 

and when going ashore after a long cruise, come out into the day, like 
terrapins from their caves, or bears in the spring, from tree-trunks. No 
one ever knows the names of these fellows; after a three years’ voyage, 
they still remain strangers to you. 

Such are the principal divisions into which a man-of-war’s crew is 
divided ; but the inferior allotments of duties are endless. We say 
nothing here of boatswain’s mates, gunner’s mates, carpenter’s mates, 
sail-maker’s mates, armorer’s mates, master-at-arms, ship’s corporals, 
cockswains, quarter-masters, quarter-gunners, captains of the forecastle, 
captains of the foretop, captains of the maintop, captains of the mizzen-top, 
captains of the after-guard, captains of the main-hold, captains of the fore¬ 
hold, captains of the head, coopers, painters, tinkers, commodore’s 
steward, captain’s steward, ward-room steward, steerage steward, com¬ 
modore’s cook, captain’s cook, officers’ cook, cooks of the range, mess- 
cooks, hammock-boys, messenger boys, cot-boys, loblollv-boys, and num¬ 
berless others, whose functions are fixed and peculiar. It is from this 
endless subdivision of duties in a man-of-war, that, upon first entering 
one, a sailor has need of a good memory, and the more of an arithmetician 
he is, the better. He is wholly nonplused, and confounded. And when, 
to crown all, the first lieutenant, whose business it is to welcome all new 
comers, and assign them their quarters ; when this officer—none of the 
most bland or amiable either—gives him number after number to recollect 
—246—139—478—351—the poor fellow feels like decamping. 

Some account has been given of the various divisions into which our 
crew was divided ; so it may be well to say something of the officers ; 
who they are, and what are their functions. Our ship was the flag-ship; 
that is, we sported a broad pennant or bougee at the main, in token that 
we carried a commodore—the highest rank of officers recognized in the 
American navy. The bougee is not to be confounded with the long 
pennant or coach-whip , a tapering, serpentine streamer, worn by all men- 
of-war. Owing to certain vague, republican scruples, about creating 
great officers of the navy, America has thus far had no admirals ; though, 
as her ships of war increase, they may become indispensable. An Ameri¬ 
can commodore, like an English commodore, or the French Chef d’ 
Escadre , is but a senior captain, temporarily commanding a small number 
of ships, detached for any special purpose. He has no permanent rank, 
recognized by Government, above his captaincy; though once employed 
as a commodore, usage and courtesy unite in continuing the title. Our 
commodore was a gallant old man, who had seen service in his time. 
When a lieutenant, he served in the late war with England ; and in the 
gun-boat actions on the lakes near New Orleans, just previous to the 
grand land engagements, received a musket-ball in his shoulder; which, 
with the two balls in his eyes, he carries about with him to this day. On 
account of this wound in his shoulder, our commodore had a body-servant’s 
pay allowed him, in addition to his regular salary. I cannot say a great 
deal, personally, of the commodore ; he never sought my company at 
all; never extended any gentlemanly courtesies. One phenomenon about 
him was the strange manner in which every one shunned him. At the 
first sign of those epaulets of his on the weather side of the poop, the 
officers there congregated invariably shrunk over to leeward, and left 
him alone. 

Turn we now to the second officer in rank, almost supreme, however, 

in the internal affairs of his ship. Captain C-was a large, portly 

man, a Harry the Eighth afloat, bluff and hearty; and as kingly in his 



HOW THEY LIVE IN AN AMERICAN MAN OF WAR. 


264 

cabin as Harry on his throne. The captain’s word is law ; he never 
speaks hut in the imperative mood. When he stands on his quarter-deck 
at sea, he absolutely commands as far as eye can reach. Only the moon 
and stars are beyond his jurisdiction. He is lord and master of the sun. 
It is not twelve o’clock till he says so. For when the sailing-master, whose 
duty it is to take the regular observation at noon, touches his hat, and 
reports twelve o’clock to the officer of the deck; that functionary orders 
a midshipman to repair to the captain’s cabin, and humbly inform him of 
the respectful suggestion of the sailing-master. 

“ Twelve o’clock reported, sir,” says the middy. 

“ Make it so,” replies the captain. 

And the bell is struck eight by the messenger-boy, and twelve o’clock 
it is. 

As in the case of the commodore, when the captain visits the deck, 
his subordinate officers generally beat a retreat to the other side ; and, as 
a general rule, would no more think of addressing him, except concerning 
the ship, than a lackey would think of hailing the Czar of Russia on his 
throne and inviting him to tea. Perhaps no mortal man has more reason 
to feel such an intense sense of his own personal consequence, as the 
captain of a man-of-war at sea. 

Next in rank comes the first or senior lieutenant, the chief executive 
officer. Beside the first lieutenant, the ward-room officers include the 
junior lieutenants, in a frigate six or seven in number, the sailing-master, 
purser, chaplain, surgeon, marine officers, and midshipmen’s schoolmaster, 
or “the professor.” They generally form a very agreeable club of good 
fellows ; from their diversity of character, admirably calculated to form 
an agreeable social whole. Of course these gentlemen all associate on 
a footing of perfect social equality. Next in order come the warrant or 
forward officers, consisting of the boatswain, gunner, carpenter, and sail- 
maker. Though these worthies sport long coats and wear the anchor- 
button ; yet, in the estimation of the ward-room officers, they are not, 
technically speaking, rated gentlemen. The first lieutenant, chaplain, or 
surgeon, for example, would never dream of inviting them to dinner. 
In sea parlance, “they come in at the hawse holesthey have hard hands; 
and the carpenter and sail-maker practically understand the duties which 
they are called upon to superintend. They mess by themselves. 

In this part of the category now come the “reefers,” otherwise “middies” 
or midshipmen. These boys are sent to sea, for the purpose of making 
commodores; and in order to become commodores, many of them deem 
it indispensable forthwith to commence chewing tobacco, drinking brandy 
and water, and swearing at the sailors. As they are only placed on board 
a sea going ship to go to school and learn the duty of a lieutenant; and, 
until qualified to act as such, have few or no special functions to attend 
to; they are little more, while midshipmen, than supernumeraries on 
board. Hence, in a crowded frigate, they are so everlastingly crossing 
the path of both men and officers, that in the navy it has become a proverb, 
that a useless fellow is “as much in the way as a reefer .” 

In a gale of wind, when all hands are called and the deck swarms with 
men, the little “middies” running about distracted and having nothing 
particular to do, make it up in vociferous swearing; exploding all about 
under foot like torpedos. Some of them are terrible little boys, cocking 
their caps at alarming angles, and looking fierce as young roosters. They 
are generally great consumers of Macassar oil and the Balm of Columbia; 
they thirst and rage after whiskers ; and sometimes, applying their oint 


HOW THEY LIVE IN AN AMERICAN MAN OF WAR. 265 

ments, lay themselves out in the sun, to promote the fertility of their 
chins. The middies live by themselves in the steerage, where, nowadays, 
they dine off a table, spread with a cloth. They have a castor at dinner; 
they have some other little boys (selected from the ship’s company) to 
wait upon them ; they sometimes drink coffee out of china. But for all 
these, their modern refinements, in some instances the affairs of their club 
go sadly to rack and ruin. The china is broken; the japanned coffee¬ 
pot dented like a pewter mug in an ale-house ; the pronged forks resemble 
tooth-picks; (for which they are sometimes used ;) the table-knives are 
hacked into hand-saws; and the cloth goes to the sail-maker to be patched. 

Having now descended from commodore to middy, we come lastly to 
a set of nondescripts, forming also a “mess” by themselves, apart from 
the seamen. Into this mess, the usage of a man-of-war thrusts various 
subordinates — including the master-at-arms, purser’s steward, ship’s 
corporals, marine sergeants, and ship’s yeomen, forming the first aristo¬ 
cracy above the sailors. The master-at-arms is a sort of high-constable 
and schoolmaster, wearing citizen’s clothes, and known by his official 
rattan. He it is whom all sailors hate. His is the universal duty of a 
universal informer and hunter-up of delinquents. On the berth-deck he 
reigns supreme ; spying out all grease-spots made by the various cooks 
of the seamen’s messes, and driving the laggards up the hatches, when 
all hands are called. But as it is a heartless, so is it a thankless office. 
Of dark nights, most masters-of-arms keep themselves in readiness to 
dodge forty-two pound balls, dropped down the hatchways near them. 
The ship’s corporals are this worthy’s deputies and ushers. The marine 
sergeants are generally tall fellows with unyielding spines and stiff upper 
lips, and very exclusive in their tastes and predilections. The ship’s 
yeoman is a gentleman who has a sort of counting-room in a tar-cellar 
down in the fore-hold. 

Except the officers above enumerated, there are none who mess apart 
from the seamen. The “ petty officers,” so called; that is, the boatswain’s, 
gunner’s, carpenter’s, and sail-maker’s mates, the captains of the tops, 
of the forecastle, and of the after-guard, and of the fore and main holds, 
and the quarter-masters, all mess in common with the crew, and in the 
American navy are only distinguished from the common seamen by their 
slightly additional pay. Thus it will be seen, that the dinner-table is the 
criterion of rank in our man-of-war world. The commodore dines alone, 
because he is the only man of his rank in the ship. So, too, with the 
captain; and the ward-room officers, warrant officers, midshipmen, the 
master-at-arms’ mess, and the common seamen—all of them, respectively, 
dine together, because they are, respectively, on a footing of equality. 

To a common sailor, the living on board a man-of-war is like living in 
a market; where you dress on the door-steps and sleep in the cellar. No 
privacy can you have; hardly one moment’s seclusion. It is almost a 
physical impossibility, that you can ever be alone. You dine at a vast 
table d'hote ; sleep in commons, and make your toilet where and when 
you can. Your clothes are stowed in a large canvas bag, generally painted 
black, which you can get out of the “rack” only once in the twenty-four hours; 
and then, during a time of the utmost confusion ; among five hundred 
other bags, with five hundred other sailors diving into each, in the midst 
of the twilight of the berth-deck. In some measure to obviate this incon¬ 
venience, many sailors divide their wardrobes between their hammocks and 
their bags ; stowing a few frocks and trowsers in the former ; so that they 
can shift at night, if they wish, when the hammocks are piped down. But 


HOW THEY LIVE IN AN AMERICAN MAN OF WAR. 


266 

they gain very little by this. You have no place whatever but your bag, 
or hammock, in which to put anything in a man-of-war. If you lay any¬ 
thing down, and turn your back for a moment, ten to one it is gone. 

From the wild life they lead, and various other causes, sailors, as a class, 
entertain the most liberal notions concerning morality and the Decalogue; 
or rather, they take their own views of such matters, caring little for the 
theological or ethical definitions of others concerning what may be crimi¬ 
nal, or wrong. Their ideas are much swayed by circumstances. They 
will covertly abstract a thing from one whom they dislike ; and insist 
upon it, that, in such a case, stealing is no robbing. Or, where the theft 
involves something funny, they only steal for the sake of the joke ; but 
this much is to be observed nevertheless, i. e., that they never spoil the 
joke by returning the stolen article. Perhaps it is a thing unavoidable, 
but the truth is that, among the crew of a man-of-war, scores of despera¬ 
does are too often found, who stop not at the largest enormities. A spe¬ 
cies of highway robbery is not unknown to them. A gang will be informed 
that such a fellow has three or four gold pieces in the monkey-bag, so 
called, or purse, which many tars wear round their necks, tucked out 
of sight. Upon this, they deliberately lay their plans ; and, in due time, 
proceed to carry them into execution. The man they have marked is 
perhaps strolling along the benighted berth-deck to his mess-chest; when, 
of a sudden, the foot-pads dash out from their hiding-place, throw him 
down, and while two or three gag him, and hold him fast, another cuts 
the bag from his neck, and makes away with it, followed by his comrades. 
This was more than once done in our frigate. At other times, hearing 
that a sailor has something valuable secreted in his hammock, they will 
rip it open from underneath, while he sleeps, and reduce the conjecture 
to a certainty. To enumerate all the minor pilferings on board a man-of- 
war would be endless. It is in vain that the officers, by threats of condign 
punishment, endeavor to instill more virtuous principles into their crew; 
so thick is the mob, that not one thief in a thousand is detected. 

In the American navy, the law allows one gill of spirits per day to every 
seaman. In two portions, it is served out just previous to breakfast and 
dinner. At the roll of the drum, the sailors assemble round a large tub, 
or cask, filled with the liquid ; and, as their names are called off by a 
midshipman, they step up and regale themselves from a little tin measure 
called a “tot.” To many of them, indeed, the thought of their daily tots 
forms a perpetual perspective of ravishing landscapes, indefinitely rece¬ 
ding in the distance. It is their great “prospect in life.” Take away 
their grog, and life possesses no further charms for them. It is hardly to 
be doubted, that the controlling inducement which keeps many men in 
the navy, is the unbounded confidence they have in the ability of the 
United States government to supply them, regularly and unfailingly, with 
their daily allowance of this beverage. I have known several forlorn 
individuals, shipping as landsmen, who have confessed to me, that having 
contracted a love for ardent spirits, which they could not renounce, and 
having by their foolish courses been brought into the most abject poverty, 
—insomuch that they could no longer gratify their thirst ashore—they 
incontinently entered the navy ; regarding it as the asylum for all drunk¬ 
ards, who might there prolong their lives by regular hours and exercise, 
and twice every day quench their thirst by moderate and undeviating 
doses. 

The common seamen in a large frigate are divided into some thirty or 
forty messes, put down on the purser’s books as mess No. 1, mess No. 2, 


HOW THEY LIVE IN AN AMERICAN MAN OF WAR. 267 

mess No. 3, etc. The members of each mess club their rations of provi¬ 
sions, and breakfast, dine, and sup together in allotted intervals between 
the guns on the main-deck. In undeviating rotation, the members of each 
mess (excepting the petty-officers) take their turn in performing the 
functions of cook and steward. And for the time being, all the affairs 
of the club are subject to their inspection and control. It is the cook’s 
business, also, to have an eye to the general interests of his mess ; to see 
that, when the aggregated allowance of beef, bread, etc., are served out 
by one of the master’s mates, the mess over which he presides receives 
its full share, without stint or subtraction. Upon the berth-deck he has 
a chest, in which to keep his pots, pans, spoons, and small stores of 
sugar, molasses, tea, and flour. But though entitled a cook, strictly 
speaking, the head of the mess is no cook at all; for the cooking for the 
crew is all done by a functionary, officially called the “ ship's cook ,” 
assisted by several deputies. 

From this it will be seen, that, so far as cooking is concerned, a “cook 
of the mess ” has very little to do ; merely carrying his provisions to and 
from the grand democratic cookery. Still, in some things, his office 
involves many annoyances. Twice a week butter and cheese are served 
out—so much to each man—and the mess-cook has the sole charge of 
these delicacies. The great difficulty consists in so catering for the mess, 
touching these luxuries, as to satisfy all. Some guzzlers are for devouring 
the butter at a meal, and finishing off with the cheese the same day ; 
others contend for saving it up against Banyan Day , when there is nothing 
but beef and bread ; and others, again, are for taking a very small bit of 
butter and cheese, by way of dessert, to each and every meal through the 
week. All this gives rise to endless disputes, debates, and altercations. 
Sometimes, with his mess-cloth—a square of painted canvas—set out 
on deck between the guns, garnished with pots, and pans, and kids , you 
see the mess-cook seated on a match-tub at its head, his trowsers legs 
rolled up and arms bared, presiding over the convivial party. “Now, 
men, you can’t have any butter to-day. I’m saving it up for to-morrow. 
You don’t know the value of butter, men. You, Jim, take your hoof off the 
cloth! Devil take me, if some of you chaps haven’t no more manners 
than so many swines! Quick, men, quick ; bear a hand, and i scoff' (eat) 
away.—I’ve got my to-morrow’s duff to make yet, and some of you fellows 
keep scoffing as if I had nothing to do but sit still here on this here tub 
here, and look on. There, there, men, you’ve all had enough ; so sail 
away out of this, and let me clear up the wreck.” In this strain would 
one of the periodical cooks of mess No. 15, talk to us. He was a tall, 
resolute fellow, who had once been a brakeman on a railroad, and he 
kept us all pretty straight; from his fiat there was no appeal. 

To a quiet, contemplative character, averse to uproar, undue exercise 
of his bodily members, and all kind of useless confusion, nothing can be 
more distressing than a proceeding in all men-of-war called “general 
quarters .” As the specific object for which a man-of-war is built and 
put into commission is to fight and fire oft' cannon, it is, of course, deemed 
indispensable that the crew should be duly instructed in the art and mys¬ 
tery involved. The summons is given by the ship’s drummer, who strikes 
a peculiar beat—short, broken, rolling, shuffling—like the sound made 
by the march into battle of iron-heeled grenadiers. It is a regular tune, 
with a fine song composed to it; the words of the chorus, being most 
artistically arranged, may give some idea of the air: 


268 how they live in an American man of war. 

“Hearts of oak are our ships, jolly tars are our men ; 

We are always ready, steady, boys, steady, 

To fight and to conquer, again and again.” 

My station at the batteries was at one of the thirty-two pound carronades, 
on the starboard side of the quarter-deck. This carronade was known 
as “Gun No. 5,” on the first lieutenant’s quarter-bill. Among our gun’s 
crew, however, it was known as Black Bet. This name was bestowed 
by the captain of the gun—a fine negro—in honor of his sweetheart, a 
colored lady of Philadelphia. Of Black Bet I was rammer and sponger; 
and ram and sponge I did, like a good fellow. But it was terrible work 
to help run in and out of the port-hole that amazing mass of metal, 
especially as the thing must be done in a trice. Then, at the summons 
of a horrid, rasping rattle, swayed by the captain in person, we were 
made to rush from our guns, seize pikes and pistols, and repel an imagin¬ 
ary army of boarders, who, by a fiction of the officers, were supposed to 
be assailing all sides of the ship at once. After cutting and slashing at 
them awhile, we jumped back to our guns, and again went to jerking our 
elbows. Meantime, a loud cry is heard of “Fire! fire! fire!” in the 
fore-top; and a regular engine, worked by a set of Bowery-boy tars, is 
forthwith set to playing streams of water aloft. Such a sea-martinet was 
our captain, that sometimes we were roused from our hammocks at night; 
when a scene would ensue that it is not in the power of pen and ink to 
describe. Five hundred men spring to their feet, dress themselves, take 
up their bedding, and run to the nettings and stow it; then hie to their 
stations—each man jostling his neighbor—some alow, some aloft; some 
this way, some that; and in less than five minutes the frigate is ready 
for action, and still as the grave ; almost every man precisely where he 
would be were an enemy actually about to be engaged. The gunner is 
burrowing down in the magazine under the ward-room, which is lighted 
by battle-lanterns, placed behind glazed glass bull’s-eyes inserted in the 
bulkhead. The powder-monkeys , or boys, who fetch and carry cartridges, 
are scampering to and fro among the guns ; and the first and second 
loaders stand ready to receive their supplies. These powder-monkeys , 
as they are called, enact a curious part in time of action. The entrance 
to the magazine on the berth-deck, where they procure their food for the 
guns, is guarded by a woolen screen ; and a gunner’s mate, standing 
behind it, thrusts out the cartridges through a small arm-hole in this 
screen. The enemy’s shot (perhaps red hot) are flying in all directions; 
and to protect their cartridges, the powder-monkeys hurriedly wrap tnem 
up in their jackets; and with all haste scramble up the ladders to their 
respective guns, like eating-house waiters hurrying along with hot cakes for 
breakfast. At general quarters the shot-boxes are uncovered ; showing 
the grape-shot—aptly so called, for they precisely resemble bunches 
of the fruit; though, to receive a bunch of iron grapes in the abdomen 
would be but a sorry dessert; and also showing the canister-shot—old 
iron of various sorts, packed in a tin case, like a tea-caddy. 

But if verily going into action, then would the frigate have made still 
further preparations ; for however alike in some things, there is always 
a vast difference—if you sound them—between a reality and a sham. 
Not to speak of the pale sternness of the men at their guns at such a 
juncture, and the choked thoughts at their hearts, the ship itself would 
here and there present a far different appearance. Something like that 
of an extensive mansion preparing for a grand entertainment, when folding- 
doors are withdrawn, chambers converted into drawing-rooms, and every 


HOW THEY LIVE IN AN AMERICAN MAN OF WAR. 


269 

inch of available space thrown into one continuous whole. For previous 
to an action, every bulkhead in a man-of-war is knocked down; great 
guns are run out of the commodore’s parlor windows ; nothing separates 
the ward-room officers’ quarters from those of the men, but an ensign 
used for a curtain. The sailors’ mess-chests are tumbled down into the 
hold; and the hospital cots—of which all men-of-war carry a large supply— 
are dragged forth from the sail-room, and piled near at hand to receive 
the wounded ; amputation-tables are ranged in the cock-pit or in the tiers , 
whereon to carve the bodies of the maimed. The yards are slung in 
chains ; fire-screens distributed here and there ; hillocks of cannon-balls 
piled between the guns; shot-plugs suspended within easy reach from 
the beams ; and solid masses of wads, big as Dutch cheeses, braced to 
the cheeks of the gun-carriages. 

No small difference, also, would be visible in the wardrobe of both 
officers and men. The officers generally fight, as dandies dance, namely, 
in silk stockings; inasmuch as, in case of being wounded in the leg, the 
silk-hose can be more easily drawn off by the surgeon ; cotton sticks, and 
and works into the wound. But beside these differences between a sham- 
fight at general quarters and a real cannonading, the aspect of the ship, 
at the beating of the retreat, would, in the latter case, be very dissimilar 
to the neatness and uniformity in the former. Then our stout masts and 
yards might be lying about decks, like tree boughs after a tornado in a 
piece of woodland; our dangling ropes, cut and sundered in all directions, 
would be bleeding tar at every yarn ; and strewn with jagged splinters 
from our wounded planks, the gun-deck might resemble a carpenter’s 
shop. Then, when all was over, and all hands would be piped to take 
down the hammocks from the exposed nettings, (where they play the part 
of the cotton bales at New Orleans,) we might find bits of broken shot, 
iron bolts, and bullets in our blankets. And, while smeared with blood 
like butchers, the surgeon and his mates would be amputating arms and 
legs on the berth-deck, an underling of the carpenter’s gang would be 
new-legging and arming the broken chairs and tables in the commodore’s 
cabin ; while the rest of his squad would be splicing and fishing the 
shattered masts and yards. The scupper-holes having discharged the last 
rivulet of blood, the decks would be washed down; and the galley-cooks 
would be going fore and aft, sprinkling them with hot vinegar, to take out 
the shambles’ smell from the planks ; which, unless some such means are 
employed, often create a highly offensive effluvia for weeks after a fight. 

Then , upon mustering the men, and calling the quarter-bills by the 
light of a battle-lantern, many a wounded seaman, with his arm in a sling, 
would answer for some poor shipmate who could never more make answer 
for himself: 

“ Tom Brown?” 

u Killed, sir.” 

“ Jack Jewel?” 

“ Killed, sir.” 

“Joe Hardy?” 

“ Killed, sir.” 

And opposite all these poor fellows’ names, down would go on the 
quarter-bills the bloody marks of red ink—fitly used on these occasions. 

The appearance of the boatswain, with his silver whistle to his mouth, 
at the main hatchway of the gun-deck, is always regarded by the crew 
with the utmost curiosity, for this betokens that some general order is 
about to be promulgated through the ship. What now? is the question 


270 HOW THEY LIVE IN AN AMERICAN MAN OF WAR. 

that runs on from man to man. A short preliminary whistle is then given 
by “Old Yarn,” as they call him, which whistle serves to collect round 
him, from their various stations, his four mates. Then Yarn, or Pipes, 
as leader of the orchestra, begins a peculiar call, in which his assistants 
join. This over, the order, whatever it may be, is loudly sung out and 
prolonged, till the remotest corner echoes again. The boatswain and his 
mates are the town criers of a man-of-war. 

A calm had commenced in the afternoon; and the following morning 
the ship’s company were electrified by a general order, thus set forth and 
declared: “Z>’ye hear there, fore and aft! all hands skylark! This 
mandate, nowadays never used except upon very rare occasions, produced 
the same effect upon the men that exhilarating gas would have done, or 
an extra allowance of “grog.” For a time, the wonted discipline of the 
ship was broken through, and perfect license allowed. It was a Babel 
here, a Bedlam there, and a Pandemonium everywhere. The faint¬ 
hearted and timorous crawled to their hiding-places, and the lusty and 
bold shouted forth their glee. Gangs of men, in all sorts of outlandish 
habiliments, wild as those worn at some crazy carnival, rushed to and fro, 
seizing upon whomsoever they pleased—warrant-officers and dangerous 
pugilists excepted—pulling and hauling the luckless tars about, till fairly 
baited into a genial warmth. Some were made fast to, and hoisted aloft 
with a will; others, mounted upon oars, were ridden fore and aft on a 
rail, to the boisterous mirth of the spectators, any one of whom might be 
the next victim. Swings were rigged from the tops, or the masts; and 
the most reluctant wights being purposely selected, spite of all struggles, 
were swung from east to west, in vast arcs of circles, till almost breathless. 
Hornpipes, fandangoes, Donnybrook-jigs, reels, and quadrilles, were 
danced under the very nose of the most mighty captain, and upon the 
very quarter-deck and poop. Sparring and wrestling, too, were all the 
vogue ; Kentucky bites were given, and the Indian hug exchanged. The 
din frightened the sea-fowl, that flew by with accelerated wing. 

It is worth mentioning that several casualties occurred, of which, how-* 
ever, I will relate but one. While the “skylarking” was at its height, 
one of the foretop-men—an ugly-tempered devil of a Portuguese, looking 
on—swore that he would be the death of any man who laid violent hands 
upon his inviolable person. This threat being overheard, a band of 
desperadoes coming up from behind, tripped him up in an instant, and 
in the twinkling of an eye the Portuguese was straddling an oar, borne 
aloft by an uproarious multitude, who rushed him along the deck at a 
railroad gallop. The living mass of arms all round and beneath him was 
so dense, that every time he inclined to one side he was instantly pushed 
upright, but only to fall over again, to receive another push from the 
contrary direction. Presently, disengaging his hands from those who 
held them, the enraged seaman drew from his bosom an iron belaying- 
pin, and recklessly laid about him to right and left. Most of his perse¬ 
cutors fled ; but some eight or ten still stood their ground, and, while 
bearing him aloft, endeavored to wrest the weapon from his hands. In 
this attempt, one man was struck on the head, and dropped insensible. 
He was taken up for dead, and carried below to the surgeon, while the 
Portuguese was put under guard. But the wound did not prove very 
serious ; and in a few days the man was walking about the deck, with 
his head well bandaged. This occurrence put an end to the “skylarking,” 
further head-breaking being strictly prohibited. In due time the Portu¬ 
guese paid the penalty of his rashness at the gangway. 


HOW THEY LIVE IN AN AMERICAN MAN OF WAR. 271 

A hint has already been conveyed concerning the subterranean depths 
of our ship’s hold. But there is no time here to speak of the spirit-room, 
a cellar down in the after-hold, where the sailors’ “grog” is kept; nor of 
the cable-tiers, where the great hawsers and chains are piled, as you see 
them at a large ship-chandler’s on shore ; nor of the grocer’s vaults, 
where tierces of sugar, molasses, vinegar, rice, and flour are snugly stowed; 
nor of the sail-room , full as a sail-maker’s loft ashore—piled up with 
great topsails and topgallant-sails, all ready-folded in their places, like so 
many white vests in a gentleman’s wardrobe ; nor of the copper and 
copper-fastened magazine, closely packed with kegs of powder, great-gun 
and small-arm cartridges; nor of the immense shot-lockers , or subterranean 
arsenals, full as a bushel of apples with twenty-four pound balls ; nor of 
the bread-room , a large apartment, tinned all round within to keep out the 
mice, where the hard biscuit destined for the consumption of five hundred 
men on a long voyage is stowed away by the cubic yard ; nor of the vast 
iron tanks for fresh water in the hold, like the reservoir lakes at Fairmount, 
in Philadelphia ; nor of the paint-room , where the kegs of white lead, and 
casks of linseed oil, and all sorts of pots and brushes, are kept; nor of 
the armorer's smithy, where the ship’s forges and anvils may be heard 
ringing at times; I say I have no time to speak of these things, and many 
more places of note. 

But there is one very extensive warehouse among the rest that needs 
special mention— the ship's Yeomen's store-room. In our vessel it was 
down in the ship’s basement, beneath the berth-deck, and you went to it 
by way of the fore-passage, a very dim, devious corridor, indeed. Enter¬ 
ing—say at noonday—you find yourself in a gloomy apartment, lit by a 
solitary lamp. On one side are shelves, filled with balls of marline , 
ratlin-stuff, seizing-stuff, spun-yarn, and numerous twines of assorted 
sizes. In another direction you see large cases containing heaps of 
articles, reminding one of a shoe-maker’s furnishing-store—wooden 
serving-mallets, fids, toggles, and heavers ; iron prickers and marling- 
spikes ; in a third quarter you see a sort of hardware shop—shelves 
piled with all manner of hooks, bolts, nails, screws and thimbles; and, in 
still another direction, you see a block-maker’s store, heaped up with 
lignum-vitae sheeves and wheels. Through low arches in the bulkhead 
beyond, you peep in upon distant vaults and catacombs, obscurely lighted 
in the far end, and showing immense coils of new ropes, and other bulkj 
articles, stowed in tiers, all savoring of tar. 

But by far the most curious department of these mysterious store-rooms 
is the armory, where the pikes, cutlasses, pistols, and belts, forming the 
arms of the boarders in time of action, are hung against the walls, and 
suspended in thick rows from the beams overhead. Here, too, are to be 
seen scores of Colt’s patent revolvers, which, though furnished with but 
one tube, multiply the fatal bullets, as the naval cat-o’-nine-tails, with a 
cannibal cruelty, in one blow nine times multiplies a culprit’s lashes; so 
that, when a sailor is ordered one dozen lashes, the sentence should read 
one hundred and eight. All these arms are kept in the brightest order, 
wearing a fine polish, and may truly be said to refiect credit on the yeoman 
and his mates. Among the lower grade of officers in a man-of-war, that 
of yeoman is not the least important. His responsibilities are denoted 
by his pay. While the petty officers, quarter-gunners, captains of the tops, 
and others, receive but fifteen and eighteen dollars a month—but little 
more than a mere able seaman — the Yeoman in an American line-of- 
battle ship receives forty dollars, and in a frigate thirty-five dollars pei 


272 HOW THEY LIVE IN' AN AMERICAN MAN OF WAR. 

month. He is accountable for all the articles under his charge, and on 
no account must deliver a yard of twine or a tenpenny nail to the boats- 
wain or carpenter, unless shown a written requisition and order from the 
senior lieutenant. Indeed, there were several parts of the ship under 
hatches shrouded in mystery, and completely inaccessible to the sailor. 
Wondrous old doors, barred and bolted, in dingy bulkheads, must have 
opened into regions full of interest to a successful explorer. Thus, 
though for a period of more than a year I was an inmate of this floating 
box of live-oak, yet there were numberless things in it that, to the last, 
remained wrapped in obscurity, or concerning which I could only lose 
myself in vague speculations. 

If you begin the day with a laugh, you may, nevertheless, end it with 
a sob and a sigh. John, Peter, Mark, and Antone—four sailors of the 
starboard-watch, were charged with violating a well-known law of the ship— 
having been engaged in one of those tangled, general fights sometimes 
occurring among sailors. They had nothing to anticipate but a flogging, 
at the captain’s pleasure. Toward evening of the next day, they were 
startled by the dread summons of the boatswain and his mates at the 
principal hatchway—a summons that ever sends a shudder through every 
manly heart in a frigate: 

“All hands witness punishment , ahoy!” 

The hoarseness of the cry, its unrelenting prolongation, its being caught 
up at different points, and sent through the lowermost depths of the ship; 
all this produces a most dismal effect upon every heart not calloused by 
long habituation to it. However much you may desire to absent yourself 
from the scene that ensues, yet behold it you must; or, at least, stand 
near it you must; for the regulations enjoin the attendance of the entire 
ship’s company, from the corpulent captain himself to the smallest boy 
who strikes the bell. 

At the summons the crew crowded round the mainmast; multitudes 
eager to obtain a good place on the booms, to overlook the scene ; many 
laughing and chatting, others canvassing the case of the culprits ; some 
maintaining sad, anxious countenances, or carrying a suppressed indig 
nation in their eyes ; a few purposely keeping behind to avoid looking on; 
in short, among five hundred men, there was every possible shade of 
character. All the officers—midshipmen included—stood together in a 
group on the starboard side of the mainmast; the first lieutenant in 
advance, and the surgeon, whose special duty it is to be present at such 
times, standing close by his side. Presently the captain came forward 
from his cabin, and stood in the center of this solemn group, with a small 
paper in his hand. That paper was the daily report of offenses, regularly 
laid upon his table every morning or evening, like the day’s journal placed 
by a bachelor’s napkin at breakfast. “ Master-at-arms, bring up the 
prisoners,” he said. A few moments elapsed, during which the captain, 
now clothed in his most dreadful attributes, fixed his eyes severely upon 
the crew, when suddenly a lane formed through the crowd of seamen, 
and the prisoners advanced—the master-at-arms, rattan in hand, on one 
side, and an armed marine on the other—and took up their stations at the 
mast. “You John, you Peter, you Mark, you Antone,” said the captain, 
“were yesterday found fighting on the gun-deck. Have you anything 
to say?” 

Mark and Antone, two steady, middle-aged men, whom I had often 
admired for their sobriety, replied that they did not strike the first blow; 
that they had submitted to much before they had yielded to their passions: 


HOW THEY LIVE IN AN AMERICAN MAN OF WAR. 273 

but as they acknowledged that they had at last defended themselves, 
their excuse was overruled. John—a brutal bully, who, it seems, was 
the real author of the disturbance—was about entering into a long exten¬ 
uation, when he was cut short by being made to confess, irrespective 
of circumstances, that he had been in the fray. Peter, a handsome lad 
about nineteen years old, belonging to the mizzen-top, looked pale and 
tremulous. He was a great favorite in his part of the ship, and especially 
in his own mess, principally composed of lads of his own age. That 
morning two of his young messmates had gone to his bag, taken out his 
best clothes, and, obtaining the permission of the marine sentry at the 
“brig,'” had handed them to him, to be put on against being summoned 
to the mast. This was done to propitiate the captain, as most captains 
love to see a tidy sailor. But it would not do. To all his supplications 
the captain turned a deaf ear. Peter declared that he had been struck 
twice before he had returned a blow. “No matter,” said the captain, 
“you struck at last, instead of reporting the case to an officer. I allow 
no man to fight on board here but myself. I do the fighting. Now, 
men,” he added, “ you all admit the charge ; you know the penalty. 
Strip! Quarter-masters, are the gratings rigged?” The gratings are 
square frames of barred wood-work, sometimes placed over the hatch¬ 
ways. One of these squares was now laid on the deck, close to the 
ship’s bulwarks, and while the remaining preparations were being made, 
the master-at-arms assisted the prisoners in removing their jackets and 
shirts. This done, their shirts were loosely thrown over their shoulders. 

At a sign from the captain, John, with a shameless leer, advanced, and 
stood passively upon the grating, while the bareheaded old quarter-master, 
with gray hair streaming in the wind, bound his feet to the cross-bars, 
and, stretching out his arms over his head, secured them to the hammock- 
nettings above. He then retreated a little space, standing silent. Mean¬ 
while, the boatswain stood solemnly on the other side, with a green bag 
in his hand, from which taking four instruments of punishment, he gave 
one to each of his mates ; for a fresh “cat,” applied by a fresh hand, is 
the ceremonious privilege accorded to every man-of-war culprit. At 
another sign from the captain, the master-at-arms, stepping up, removed 
the shirt from the prisoner. At this juncture a wave broke against the 
ship’s side, and dashed the spray over his exposed back. But though 
the air was piercing cold, and the water drenched him, John stood still, 
without a shudder. 

The captain’s finger was now lifted, and the first boatswain’s-mate 
advanced, combing out the nine tails of his cat with his hand, and then, 
sweeping them round his neck, brought them with the whole force of his 
body upon the mark. Again, and again, and again ; and at every blow, 
higher and higher rose the long, purple bars on the prisoner’s back. But 
he only bowed over his head, and stood still. Meantime, some of the 
crew whispered among themselves in applause of their shipmate’s nerve ; 
but the greater part were breathlessly silent as the keen scourge hissed 
through the wintery air, and fell with a cutting, wiry sound upon the mark. 
One dozen lashes being applied, the man was taken down, and went among 

the crew with a smile, saying, “-me! it’s nothing when you’re 

used to it! Who wants to fight?” The next was Antone, the Portuguese. 
At every blow he surged from side to side, pouring out a torrent of 
involuntary blasphemies. Never before had he been heard to curse. 
When cut down, he went among the men, swearing to have the life of 
the captain. Of course, this was unheard by the officers. Mark, the 
18 



274 ' how they live in an American man of war. 

third prisoner, only cringed and coughed under his punishment. He had 
some pulmonary complaint. He was off duty for several days after the 
flogging ; but this was partly to be imputed to his extreme mental misery. 
It was his first scourging, and he felt the insult more than the injury. 
He became silent and sullen for the rest of the cruise. The fourth and 
last was Peter, the mizzen-top lad. He had often boasted that he had 
never been degraded at the gangway. The day before his cheek had 
worn its usual red, but now no ghost was whiter. As he was being 
secured to the gratings, and the shudderings and creepings of his daz- 
zlingly white back were revealed, he turned round his head imploringly; 
but his weeping entreaties and vows of contrition were of no avail. “I 
would not forgive God Almighty!” cried the captain. The fourth boat- 
swain’s-mate advanced, and at the first blow, the boy, shouting “My God! 
Oh! my God!” writhed and leaped so as to displace the gratings, and 
scatter the nine tails of the scourge all over his person. At the next blow 
he howled, leaped, and raged in unendurable torture. “What are you 
stopping for, boatswain’s-mate?” cried the captain. “Lay on!” and the 
whole dozen was applied. “I don’t care what happens to me now!” 
wept Peter, going among the crew, with blood-shot eyes, as he put on 
his, shirt. “I have been flogged once, and they may do it again, if they 
will. Let them look out for me now. “Pipe down!” cried the captain, 
and the crew slowly dispersed. 

Of all the non-combatants of a man-of-war, the purser, perhaps, stands 
foremost in importance. Though he is but a member of the gun-room 
mess, yet usage seems to assign him a conventional station somewhat 
above that of his equals in navy rank—the chaplain, surgeon, and profes¬ 
sor. Moreover, he is frequently to be seen in close conversation with 
the commodore, who, in our ship, was more than once known to be slightly 
jocular with our purser. Upon several occasions, also, he was called 
into the commodore’s cabin, and remained closeted there for several 
minutes together. Nor did I remember that there ever happened a 
cabinet meeting of the ward-room barons, the lieutenants, in the com¬ 
modore’s cabin, but the purser made one of the party. 

Now, under this high functionary of state, the official known as the 
purser’s steward was head clerk of the frigate’s fiscal affairs. Upon the 
berth-deck he had a regular counting-room, full of ledgers, journals, and 
day-books. His desk was as much littered with papers as any Pearl 
Street merchant’s, and much time was devoted to his accounts. For 
hours together you would see him, through the window of his subterranean 
office, writing by the light of his perpetual lamp. In the vicinity of the 
office of the purser’s steward are the principal store-rooms of the purser, 
where large quantities of goods of every description are to be found. 
On board of those ships where goods are permitted to be served out to 
the crew for the purpose of selling them ashore, to raise money, more 
business is transacted at the office of a purser’s steward in one Liberty- 
day morning than all the dry goods shops in a considerable village would 
transact in a week. Once a month, with undeviating regularity, this 
official has his hands more than usually full. For once a month, certain 
printed bills, called mess-bills, are circulated among the crew, and what¬ 
ever you may want from the purser—be it tobacco, soap, duck, dungeree, 
needles, thread, knives, belts, calico, ribbon, pipes, paper, pens, hats, ink. 
shoes, socks, or whatever it may be—down it goes on the mess-bill, which, 
being the next day returned to the office of the steward, the “slops,” as 
they are called, are served out to the men and charged to their accounts. 


HOW THEY LIVE IN AN AMERICAN MAN OF WAR. 


275 

Lucky is it for man-of-war’s-men that the outrageous impositions to which, 
but a very few years ago, they were subjected from the abuses in this 
department of the service, and the unscrupulous cupidity of many of the 
pursers—lucky is it for them that now these things are in a great degree 
done away. The pursers, instead of being at liberty to make almost what 
they please from the sale of their wares, are now paid by regular stipends 
laid down by law. Under the exploded system, the profits of some of 
these officers were almost incredible. In one cruise up the Mediterranean, 
the purser of an American line-of-battle ship was, on good authority, said 
to have cleared the sum of $50,000. Upon that he quitted the service, 
and retired into the country. Shortly after, his three daughters—not 
very lovely—married extremely well. No wonder that on board of the 
old frigate Java, upon her return from a cruise extending over a period 
of more than four years, one thousand dollars paid off eighty of her crew, 
though the aggregate wages of the eighty for the voyage must have 
amounted to about sixty thousand dollars. Even under the present system, 
the purser of a line-of-battle ship, for instance, is far better paid than any 
other officer, short of captain or commodore. While the lieutenant com¬ 
monly receives but eighteen hundred dollars, the surgeon of the fleet 
but fifteen hundred, the chaplain twelve hundred, the purser of a line-of- 
battle receives thirty-five hundred dollars. In considering his salary, 
however, his responsibilities are not to be overlooked ; they are by no 
means insignificant. 

To make plain the thing about to be related, it needs to repeat what 
has somewhere been previously mentioned, that in tacking ship every 
seaman in a man-of-war has a particular station assigned him. What 
that station is, should be made known to him by the first lieutenant; and 
when the word is passed to tack or wear , it is every seaman’s duty to be 
found at his post. But among the various numbers and stations given to 
me by the senior lieutenant, when I first came on board the frigate, he 
had altogether omitted informing me of my particular place at those times, 
and, up to the precise period now written of, I had hardly known that I 
should have had any special place then at all. For the rest of the men, 
they seemed to me to catch hold of the first rope that offered, as in a 
merchantman upon similar occasions. Indeed, I subsequently discovered, 
that such was the state of discipline—in this one particular, at least— 
that very few of the seamen could tell where their proper stations were, 
at tacking or wearing. 

“All hands tack ship, ahoy!” such was the announcement made by the 
boatswain’s mates at the hatchways. It was just eight bells—noon, and 
springing from my white jacket, which I had spread between the guns for 
a bed on the main-deck, I ran up the ladders, and, as usual, seized hold 
of the main-brace, which fifty hands were streaming along forward. 
When main-topsail haul! was given through the trumpet, I pulled at this 
brace with such heartiness and good-will, that I almost flattered myself 
that my instrumentality in getting the frigate round on the other tack, 
deserved a public vote of thanks, and a silver tankard from Congress. 
Butsomething happened to be in the way aloft when the yards swung round; 

a little confusion ensued ; and, with anger on his brow, Captain C- 

came forward to see what occasioned it. No one to let go the weather- 
lift of the mainyard The rope was cast off, however, by a hand, and 
the yards, unobstructed, came round. When the last rope was coiled away, 
tife captain desired to know of the first lieutenant who it might be that 
was stationed at the weather (then the starboard) main-lift. With a vexed.. 



276 HOW THEY LIVE IN AN AMERICAN MAN OF WAR. 

expression of countenance the first lieutenant sent a midshipman for the 
station bill, when, upon glancing it over, my own name was found put 
down at the post in question. At the time I was on the gun-deck below, 
and did not know of these proceedings ; but a moment after, I heard the 
boatswain’s mate bawling my name at all the hatchways, and along all 
three decks. It was the first time I had ever heard it so sent through 
the furthest recesses of the ship, and well knowing what this generally 
betokened to other seamen, my heart jumped to my throat, and I hurriedly 
asked Flute, the boatswain’s-mate at the fore-hatchway, what was wanted 
of me. 

“ Captain wants ye at the mast,” he replied. “ Going to flog ye, I 
guess.” 

“ What for?” 

“My eyes! you’ve been chalking your face, hain’t ye?” 

“ What am I wanted for?” I repeated. 

But at that instant my name was again thundered forth by the other 
boatswain’s mate, and Flute hurried me away, hinting that I would soon 
find out what the captain desired of me. I swallowed down my heart in 
me as I touched the spardeck, for a single instant balanced myself on my 
best center, and then, wholly ignorant of what was going to be alleged 
against me, advanced to the dread tribunal of the frigate. As I passed 
through the gangway, I saw the quarter-master rigging the gratings ; the 
boatswain with his green bag of scourges; the master-at-arms ready to 
help off some one’s shirt. Again I made a desperate swallow of my 

whole soul in me, and found myself standing before Caplain C-. 

Ilis flushed face obviously showed him in ill humor. Among the group 
of officers by his side was the first lieutenant, who, as I came aft, eyed 
me in such a manner, that I plainly perceived him to be extremely vexed 
at me for having been the innocent means of reflecting upon the manner 
in which he kept up the discipline of the ship. 

“Why were you not at your station, sir?” asked the captain. 

“What station do you mean sir?” said I. 

It is generally the custom with man-of-war’s-inen to stand obsequiously 
touching their hat at every sentence they address to the captain. But 
as this was not obligatory upon me by the Articles of War, I did not do 
so upon the present occasion, and previously, I had never had the dan¬ 
gerous honor of a personal interview' with Captain C-. He quickly 

noticed my omission of the homage usually rendered him, and instinct 
told me, that, to a certain extent, it set his heart against me. 

“What station, sir, do you mean?” said I. 

“You pretend ignorance,” he replied; “it will not help you, sir.” 

Glancing at the captain, the first lieutenant now produced the station 
bill, and read my name in connection with that of the starboard main-lift. 

“Captain C-,” said I, “it is the first time I ever heard of my being 

assigned to that post.” 

“How is this, Mr. B-?” he said, turning to the first lieutenant, with 

a fault-finding expression. 

“It is impossible, sir,” said that officer, striving to hide his vexation, 
“but this man must have known his station.” 

“I have never known it before this moment, Captain C-,” said 1. 

“Do you contradict my officer?” he returned. “I shall flog you.” 

I had now been on board the frigate upward of a year, and remained 
unscourged ; the ship was homeward-bound, and in a few weeks, at most, 
d would be a freeman. And now, after making a hermit of myself in 






HOW THEY LIVE IN AN AMERICAN MAN OF WAR. 277 

some things, in order to avoid the possibility of the scourge, here it was 
hanging over me for a thing utterly unforeseen, for a crime of which I 
was as utterly innocent. But all that was as naught. I saw that my case 
was hopeless; my solemn disclaimer was thrown in my teeth, and the 
boatswain’s mate stood curling his fingers through the cat. There are 
times when wild thoughts enter a man’s heart, when he seems almost 
irresponsible for his act and his deed. The captain stood on the weather- 
side of the deck. Sideways, on an unobstructed line with him, was the 
opening of the lee-gangway, where the side-ladders are suspended in port. 
Nothing but a slight bit of sinnate-stuff served to rail in this opening, 
which was cut right down to the level of the captain’s feet, showing the 
far sea beyond. I stood a little to windward of him, and, though he was 
a large, powerful man, it was certain that a sudden rush against him, 
along the slanting deck, would infallibly pitch him headforemost into the 
ocean, though he who so rushed must needs go over with him. My 
blood seemed clotting in my veins ; I felt icy cold at the tips of my fingers, 
and a dimness was before my eyes. But through that dimness the boat¬ 
swain’s mate, scourge in hand, loomed like a giant, and Captain C-, 

and the blue sea seen through the opening at the gangway, showed with 
an awful vividness. I cannot analyze my heart, though it then stood 
still within me. But the thing that swayed me to my purpose was not 

altogether the thought that Captain C-was about to degrade me, and 

that I had taken an oath with my soul that he should not. No, I felt 
my man’s manhood so bottomless within me, that no word, no blow, no 

scourge of Captain C-could cut me deep enough for that. I but 

swung to an instinct in me—the instinct diffused through all animated 
nature, the same that prompts even a worm to turn under the heel. 

Locking souls with him, I meant to drag Captain C-from this earthly 

tribunal of his to that of Jehovah, and let Him decide between us. No 
other way could I escape the scourge. 

“To the gratings,sir!” said Captain C-; “do you hear?” 

My eye was measuring the distance between him and the sea. 

“Captain C-,” said a voice advancing from the crowd. I turned 

to see who this might be, that audaciously interposed at a juncture like 
this. It was our remarkably handsome and gentlemanly corporal of 
marines, Colbrook. “I know that man,” said Colbrook, touching his 
cap, and speaking in a mild, firm, but extremely deferential manner; 
“and I know that he would not be found absent from his station, if he 
knew where it was.” 

This speech was almost unprecedented. Seldom or never before had 
a marine dared to speak to the captain of a frigate in behalf of a seaman 
at the mast. But there was something so unostentatiously commanding 
in the calm manner of the man, that the captain, though astounded* did 
not in any way reprimand him. The very unusualness of his interference 
seemed Colbrook’s protection. Taking heart, perhaps, from Colbrook’s 
example, Jack Chase interposed, and in a manly but carefully respectful 
manner, in substance repeated the corporal’s remark, adding that he had 
never found me wanting in the top. The captain looked from Chase to 
Colbrook, and from Colbrook to Chase—one the foremost man among 
the seamen, the other the foremost man among the soldiers—then all 
round upon the packed and silent crew, and, as if a slave to Fate, though 
supreme captain of a frigate, he turned to the first lieutenant, made some 
indifferent remark, and saying to me you may go , sauntered aft into his 
cabin; while I, who in the desperation of my soul, had but just escaped 








278 HOW THEY LIVE IN AN AMERICAN MAN OF WAR. 

being a murderer and a suicide, almost burst into tears of thanksgiving 
where I stood. 

Let us jot down in our memories a few little things pertaining to our 
man-of-war world. There is no part of a frigate where you will see more 
going and coming of strangers, and overhear more greetings and gossipings 
of acquaintances, than in the immediate vicinity of the scuttle-butt, just 
forward of the main-hatchway, on the gun-deck. The scuttle-butt is a 
goodly, round, painted cask, standing on end, and with its upper 
head removed, showing a narrow, circular shelf within, where rest a 
number cf tin cups for the accommodation of drinkers. Central, within 
the scuttle-butt itself, stands an iron pump, which, connecting with the 
immense water-tanks in the hold, furnishes an unfailing supply of the 
much-admired Pale Ale, first brewed in the brooks of the Garden of Eden, 
and stamped with the brand of our old father Adam, who never knew 
what wine was. We are indebted to the old vintner Noah for that. The 
scuttle-butt is the only fountain in the ship; and here alone can you drink, 
unless at your meals. Night and day an armed sentry paces before it, 
bayonet in hand, to see that no water is taken away, except according 
to law. 

As five hundred men come to drink at this scuttle-butt; as it is often 
■surrounded by officer’s servants drawing water for their masters to wash ; 
hy the cooks of the range, who hither come to fill their coffee-pots ; and 
by the cooks of the ship’s messes to procure water for their duffs ; the 
scuttle-butt may be denominated the town-pump of the ship. 

As in all extensive establishments, so in a man-of-war, there are a 
variety of similar snuggeries for the benefit of decrepit or rheumatic old 
tars. Chief among these is the office of mast-man. There is a stout 
rail on deck, at the base of each mast, where a number of braces, lifts, 
and buntlines are belayed to the pins. It is the sole duty of the mastman 
to see that these ropes are always kept clear, to preserve his premises in 
a state of the greatest attainable neatness, and every Sunday morning to 
dispose his lopes in neat Flemish coils. The mainmast-man of our ship 
was a very aged seaman, who well deserved his comfortable berth. He 
had seen more than half a century of the most active service, and, through 
all, had proved himself a good and faithful man. He furnished one of 
the very rare examples of a sailor in a green old age; for, with most 
sailors, old age comes in youth, and hardship and vice carry them on an 
early bier to the grave. 

There was an old negro, who went by the name of Tawney, a sheet- 
anchor-man, whom we often invited into our top of tranquil nights, to 
hear him discourse. He was a staid and sober seaman, very intelligent, 
with a fine, frank bearing, one of the best men in the ship, and held in 
high estimation by every one. It seems that, during the last war between 
England and America, he had, with several others, been “impressed” 
upon the high seas, out of a New England merchantman. The ship that 
impressed him was an English frigate, the Macedonian, afterward taken 
by the United States, the ship in which we were sailing. 

It was the holy Sabbath, according to Tawney, and, as the Briton bore 
down on the American—her men at their quarters—Tawney and his 
countrymen, who happened to be stationed at the quarter-deck battery, 
respectfully accosted the captain—an old man by the name of Cardan— 
as he passed them, in his rapid promenade, his spyglass under his arm. 
Again they assured him that they were not Englishmen, and that it was 
a most bitter thing to lift their.hands against the flag of that country which 


HOW THEY LIVE IN AN AMERICAN MAN OF WAR. 279 

harbored the mothers that bore them. They conjured him to release 
them from their guns, and allow them to remain neutral during the con¬ 
flict. But when a ship of any nation is running into action, it is no time 
for argument, small time for justice, and not much time for humanity. 
Snatching a pistol from the belt of a boarder standing by, the captain 
leveled it at the heads of the three sailors, and commanded them instantly 
to their quarters, under penalty of being shot on the spot. So, side by 
side with his country’s foes, Tawney and his companions toiled at the 
guns, and fought out the fight to the last ; with the exception of one of 
them, who was killed at his post by one of his own country’s balls. 

At length, having lost her fore and main-topmasts, and her mizzen-mast 
having been shot away to the deck, and her foreyard lying in two pieces 
on her shattered forecastle, and in a hundred places having been hulled 
with round shot, the English frigate was reduced to the last extremity. 
Captain Cardan ordered his signal quarter-master to strike the flag. 
Tawney was one of those who, at last, helped pull him on board the 
United States. As he touched the deck, Cardan saluted Decatur, the 
hostile commander, and offered his sword; but it was courteously declined. 
Perhaps the victor remembered the dinner parties that he and the English¬ 
man had enjoyed together in Norfolk, just previous to the breaking out 
of hostilities—and while both were in command of the very frigates now 
crippled on the sea. The Macedonian, it seems, had gone into Norfolk 
with dispatches. Then they had laughed and joked over their wine, and 
a wager of a beaver hat was said to have been made between them upon 
the event of the hostile meeting of their ships. 

Gazing upon the heavy batteries before him, Cardan said to Decatur, 
“This is a seventy-four, not a frigate ; no wonder the day is yours!” This 
remark was founded upon the United States’ superiority in guns. The 
United States’ main-deck batteries then consisted, as now, of twenty-four 
pounders ; the Macedonian’s of only eighteens. In all, the American 
vessel numbered fifty-four guns and four hundred and fifty men ; the 
British, forty-nine guns and three hundred men ; a very great disparity, 
which, united to the other circumstances of this action, deprives the 
victory of all claims to glory beyond those that might be set up by a river- 
horse getting the better of a seal. 

According to Tawney, when the captain of the Macedonian—seeing 
that the United States had his vessel completely in her power—gave the 
word to strike the flag, one of his officers, a man hated by the seamen for 
his tyranny, howled out the most terrific remonstrances, swearing that, 
for his part, he would not give up, but was for sinking the Macedonian 
along side the enemy. Had he been captain, doubtless he would have 
done so ; thereby gaining the name of a hero in this world ;—but what 
would they have called him in the next? But as the whole matter of war 
is a thing that smites common sense and Christianity in the face ; so 
everything connected with it is utterly foolish, unchristian, barbarous, 
brutal, and savoring of the Feejee Islands, cannibalism, saltpeter, and 
the devil. It is generally the case in a man-of-war when she strikes her 
flag that all discipline is at an end, and the men for a time are ungovern¬ 
able. This was so on board of the English frigate. The spirit-room was 
broken open, and buckets of grog were passed along the decks, where 
many of the wounded were lying between the guns. These mariners 
seized the buckets, and, spite of all remonstrances, gulped down the 
burning spirits, ill, as Tawney said, the blood suddenly spirted out of 
their wounds, and they fell dead to the deck.^ 


HOW THEY LIVE IN AN AMERICAN MAN OF WAR. 


280 

The negro had many more stories to tell of this fight; and frequently 
he would escort me along our main-deck batteries—still mounting the 
same guns used in the battle—pointing out their inffaceable indentations 
and scars. Coated over with the accumulated paint of more than thirty 
years, they were almost invisible to a casual eye ; but Tawney knew 
them all by heart; for he had returned home in the United States, and 
had beheld these scars shortly after the engagement. One afternoon, I 
was walking with him along the gun-deck, when he paused abreast of the 
mainmast. ‘‘This part of the ship,” said he, “we called the slaughter¬ 
house on board the Macedonian. Here the men fell, five and six at a 
time. An enemy always directs its shot here, in order to hurl over the 
mast, if possible. The beams and carlines overhead in the Macedonian 
slaughter-house were spattered with blood and brains. About the hatch¬ 
ways it looked like a butcher’s stall; bits of human flesh sticking in the 
ring-bolts. A pig that ran about the decks escaped unharmed, but his 
hide was so clotted with blood, from rooting among the pools of gore, that 
when the ship struck the sailors hove the animal overboard, swearing that 
it would be rank cannibalism to eat him.” Another quadruped, a goat, 
lost its fore legs in this fight. The sailors who were killed—according 
to the usual custom—were ordered to be thrown overboard as soon as 
they fell; no doubt, as the negro said, that the sight of so many corpses 
lying around might not appall the survivors at the guns. Among other 
instances, he related the following. A shot entering one of the port-holes, 
dashed dead two thirds of a gun’s crew. The captain of the next gun, 
dropping his lock-string, which he had just pulled, turned over the heap 
of bodies to see who they were ; when, perceiving an old messmate, 
who had sailed with him in many cruises, he burst into tears, and, taking 
the corpse up in his arms, and going with it to the side, held it over the 

water a moment, and eying it, cried, “Oh God! Tom!”—“D- your 

prayers over that thing! overboard with it, and down to your gun!” roared 
a wounded lieutenant. The order was obeyed, and the heart-stricken 
sailor returned to his post. 

Among the numerous artists and professors of polite trades in the navy, 
none are held in higher estimation or drive a more profitable business 
than the barbers. And it may well be imagined that the five hundred 
heads of hair and five hundred beards of a frigate should furnish no small 
employment for those to whose faithful care they may be intrusted. The 
regular days upon which the barbers shall exercise their vocation are set 
down on the ship’s calender, and known as shaving days. On board of 
our ship these days are Wednesdays and Saturdays; when, immediately 
after breakfast, the barbers’ shops were opened to customers. They were 
in different parts of the gun-deck, between the long twenty-four pounders. 
Their furniture, however, was not very elaborate, hardly equal to the 
sumptuous appointments of metropolitan barbers. Indeed, it merely 
consisted of a match-tub, elevated upon a sbot-box, as a barber’s chair 
for the patient. These barbers of ours had their labors considerably 
abridged by a fashion prevailing among many of the crew, of wearing very 
large whiskers; so that, in most cases, the only parts needing a shave 
were the upper lip and suburbs of the chin. This had been more or 
less the custom during the whole three year’s cruise ; but for some time 
previous to our weathering Cape Horn, very many of the seamen had 
redoubled their assiduity in cultivating their beards, preparatory to their 
return to America. Above all, the captain of ihe forecastle, old Ushant— 
a fine specimen of a sea sexagenarian—wore a wide, spreading beard, 



HOW THEY LIVE IN AN AMERICAN MAN OF WAR. 281 

grizzled and gray, that flowed over his breast, and often became tangled 
and knotted with tar. This Ushant, in all weathers, was ever alert at 
his duty ; intrepidly mounting the foreyard in a gale, his long beard 
streaming like Neptune’s. 

Throughout the cruise, many of the officers had expressed their ab¬ 
horrence of the impunity with which the most extensive plantations of 
hair were cultivated under their very noses ; and they frowned upon every 
beard with even greater dislike. They said it was unseamanlike; not ship¬ 
shape ; in short, it was disgraceful to the navy. One evening the ship’s 
company were astounded by an extraordinary announcement made at the 
main-hatchway of the gun-deck, by the boatswain’s mate there stationed. 
“D’ye hear there, fore and aft? All you that have long hair, cut it short; 
and all you that have large whiskers, trim them down, according to the 
navy regulations.” The excitement was intense throughout that whole 
evening. One and all, they resolved not to succumb, and every man 
swore to stand by his beard and his neighbor. Twenty-four hours after— 
at the next evening quarters—the captain’s eye was observed to wander 
along the men at their guns—not a beard was shaven! When the drum 
beat the retreat, the boatswain—now attended by all four of his mates, 
to give additional solemnity to the announcement—repeated the previous 
day’s order, and concluded by saying, that twenty-four hours would be 
given for all to acquiesce. But the second day passed, and at quarters, 

untouched, every beard bristled on its chin. Forthwith Captain C- 

summoned the midshipmen, who, receiving his orders, hurried to the 
various divisions of the guns, and communicated them to the lieutenants 
respectively stationed over divisions. The officer commanding mine 
turned upon us, and said, “Men, if to-morrow night I find any of you with 
long hair, or whiskers of a standard violating the navy regulations, the 
names of such offenders shall be put down on the report.” Though 
many heads of hair were shorn, and many fine beards reaped that day, 
yet several still held out, and vowed to defend their sacred hair to the last 
gasp of their breath. When the proper time arrived, their names were 
taken down by the officers of divisions, and they were afterward summoned 
in a body to the mast, where the captain stood ready to receive them. 
The whole ship’s company crowded to the spot, and, amid the breathless 
multitude,the venerable rebels advanced and unhatted. The rebel beards, 
headed by old Ushant’s, streaming like a commodore’s bougee, now stood 
in silence at the mast. 

“You knew the order!” said the captain, eying them severely; “what 
does that hair on your chins?” 

“Sir,” said the captain of the forecastle, “did old Ushant ever refuse 
doing his duty? did he ever yet miss his muster? But, sir, old Ushant’s 
beard is his own!” 

“What’s that, sir? master-at-arms, put that man into the brig.” 

“Sir,” said the old man, respectfully, “the three years for which I 
shipped are expired ; and though I am perhaps bound to work the ship 
home, yet, as matters are, I think my beard might be allowed me. It is 
but a few days, Captain C- 

“Put him into the brig!” cried the captain ; “and now, you old rascals!” 
he added, turning round upon the rest, “I give you fifteen minutes to 
have those beards taken off; if they then remain on your chins, I’ll flog 
y 0U —every mother’s son of you—though you were all my own godfathers!” 
The band of beards went forward, summoned their barbers, and their 
glorious pennants were no more. In obedience to orders, they then 



HOW THEY LIVE IN AN AMERICAN MAN OF WAR. 


282 

paraded themselves at the mast, and, addressing the captain, said, “Sir, 
our muzzle-lashings are cast off!” 

On the morrow, after breakfast, Ushant was taken out of irons, and, 
with the master-at-arms on one side and an armed sentry on the other, 
was escorted along the gun-deck and up the ladder to the mainmast. 
There the captain stood, firm as before. They must have guarded the 
old man thus to prevent his escape to the shore, something less than a 
thousand miles distant at the time. 

“Well, sir, will you have that beard taken off? you have slept over it 
a whole night now ; what do you say ? I don’t want to flog an old man 
like you, Ushant!” 

“My beard is my own, sir!” said the old man, lowly. 

“Will you take it off?” 

“It is mine, sir!” said the old man, tremulously. 

“Rig the gratings!” roared the captain. “Master-at-arms, strip him! 
quarter-master, seize him up! boatswain’s-mates, do your duty!” 

While these executioners were employed, the captain’s excitement had 
a little time to abate ; and when, at last, old Ushant was tied up by the 
arms and legs, and his venerable back was exposed—that back which 
had bowed at the guns of the frigate Constitution when she captured the 
Guerriere—the captain seemed to relent. 

“You are a very old man,” he said, “and I am sorry to flog you; but 
my orders must be obeyed. I will give you one more chance; will you 
have that beard taken off?” 

“ Captain C-,” said the old man, turning round painfully in his 

bonds, “ you may flog me if you will; but, sir, in this one thing I can not 
obey you.” 

“Lay on! I’ll see his backbone!” roared the captain in a sudden fury. 

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve 
lashes were laid on the back of that heroic old man. He only bowed 
over his head, and stood as the dying gladiator lies. 

“Cut him down,” said the captain. 

When the master-at-arms advanced with the prisoner’s shirt, Ushant 
waived him off with the dignified air of a Brahim, saying, “Do you think, 
master-at-arms, that I am hurt? I will put on my own garment. I am 
never the worse for it, man ; and ’tis no dishonor when he who would 
dishonor you, only dishonors himself.” 

“What says he?” cried the captain; “what says that tarry old philoso¬ 
pher with the smoking back? Tell it to me, sir, if you dare! Sentry, take 
that man back to the brig. Stop! John Ushant, you have been captain 
of the forecastle ; I break you. And now you go into the brig, there to 
remain till you consent to have that beard taken off.” 

“My beard is my own,” said the old man, quietly. “Sentry, I am 
ready.” 

And back he went into durance between the guns ; but after lying some 
four or five days in irons, an order came to remove them; but he was 
still kept confined. Books were allowed him, and he spent much time in 
reading. But he also spent many hours in braiding his beard, and enter¬ 
weaving with it stripes of red bunting, as if he desired to dress out and 
adorn the thing which had triumphed over all opposition. 

He remained a prisoner till we arrived in America ; but the very 
moment he heard the chain rattle out of the hawsehole, and the ship 
swing to her anchor, he started to his feet, dashed the sentry aside, and 
gaining the deck, exclaimed, “At home, with my beard!” 



HOW THEY LIVE IN AN AMERICAN MAN OF WAR. 


283 

Though, as I afterward learned, Ushant was earnestly entreated to put 
the case into some lawyer’s hands, he firmly declined, saying “ I have 
won the battle, my friends, and I do not care for the prize-money.” 

Years ago there was a punishment inflicted in the English, and I believe 
in the American navy, called keel-hauling —a phrase still employed by 
man-of-war’smen when they would express some signal vengeance upon 
a personal foe. The practice still remains in the French national marine, 
though it is by no means resorted to so frequently as in times past. It 
consists of attaching tackles to the two extremities of the mainyard, and 
passing the rope under the ship’s bottom. To one end of this rope the 
culprit is secured ; his own shipmates are then made to run him up and 
down, first on this side, then on that—now scraping the ship’s hull under 
water—anon, hoisted, stunned and breathless, into the air. 

But though this barbarity is now abolished from the English and 
American navies, there still remains another practice which, if anything, 
is even worse than keel-hauling. This remnant of the Middle Ages is 
known in the navy as “flogging through the fleet” It is never inflicted 
except by authority of a court-martial upon some trespasser deemed guilty 
of a flagrant offense. Never, that I know of, has it been inflicted by an 
American man-of-war on the home station. The reason, probably, is, 
that the officers well know that such a spectacle would raise a mob in 
any American seaport. 

All hands being called “to witness punishment” in the ship to which 
the culprit belongs, the sentence of the court-martial condemning him is 
read, when, with the usual solemnities, a portion of the punishment is 
inflicted. In order that it shall not lose in severity by the slightest ex¬ 
haustion in the arm of the executioner, a fresh boatswain’s mate is called 
out at every dozen. As the leading idea is to strike terror into the 
beholders, the greatest number of lashes is inflicted on board the culprit’s 
own ship, in order to render him the more shocking spectacle to the 
crews of the other vessels. The first infliction being concluded, the 
culprit’s shirt is thrown over him; he is put into a boat—the Rogue’s 
March being played meanwhile—and rowed to the next ship of the 
squadron. All hands of that ship are then called to man the rigging, and 
another portion of the punishment is inflicted by the boatswain’s mates 
of that ship. The bloody shirt is again thrown over the seaman ; and 
thus he is carried through the fleet or squadron till the whole sentence 
is inflicted. In other cases, the launch—the largest of the boats—is 
rigged with a platform, (like a headsman’s scaffold,) upon which halberds, 
something like those used in the English army, are erected. They con¬ 
sist of two stout poles, planted upright. Upon the platform stand a 
lieutenant, a surgeon, a master-at-arms, and the executioners with their 
“cats.” They are rowed through the fleet, stopping at each ship, till the 
whole sentence is inflicted, as before. 

In some cases, the attending surgeon has professionally interfered 
before the last lash has been given, alleging that immediate death must 
ensue if the remainder should be administered without a respite. But 
instead of humanely remitting the remaining lashes, in a case like this, 
the man is generally consigned to his cot for ten or twelve days; and 
when the surgeon officially reports him capable of undergoing the rest 
of the sentence, it is forthwith inflicted. Shylock must have his pound 
of flesh. To say, that after being flogged through the fleet, the prisoner’s 
back is sometimes puffed up like a pillow; or to say that in other cases 
it looks as if burned black before a roasting fire ; or to say that you may 


234 


HOW THEY LIVE IN AN AMERICAN MAN OF WAR. 


track him through the squadron by the blood on the bulwarks of every 
ship, would only be saying what many seamen have seen. Several weeks, 
sometimes whole months, elapse before the sailor is sufficiently recovered 
to resume his duties. During the greater part of that interval he lies in 
the sick-bay, groaning out his days and nights ; and unless he has the 
hide and constitution of a rhinoceros, he never is the man he was before, 
but, broken and shattered to the marrow of his bones, sinks into death 
before his time. Instances have occurred where he has expired the day 
after the punishment. 

Some years ago a fire broke out near the powder magazine in an 
American national ship, one of a squadron at anchor in the Bay of Naples. 
The utmost alarm prevailed. A cry went fore and aft that the ship was 
about to blow up. One of the seamen sprung overboard in affright. At 
length the fire was got under, and the man was picked up. He was tried 
before a court-martial, found guilty of cowardice, and condemned to be 
flogged through the fleet. In due time the squadron made sail for Algiers, 
and in that harbor, once haunted by pirates, the punishment was inflicted— 
the Bay of Naples, though washing the shores of an absolute king, not 
being deemed a fit place for such an exhibition of American naval law. 


NARRATIVE 


OF AN 


OLD ENGLISH SAILOR, 

YRT LIVING, RELATED BY HIMSELF, IN A STYLE OF AMUSING SIMPLICITY, AND SHOWING 
VIVIDLY THE MANY VICISSITUDES WHICH FORM 


LIFE EXPERIENCES ON THE OCEAN. 


I aai writing this to show the wonderful mercies the Lord has shown 
me in fifty years’ lifetime at sea, and I hope that whoever may have a 
chance to look at it, it will teach them not to despair, or give themselves 
up for lost; for by perseverance, and a firm trust in the Almighty, we 
can do anything that the giver of all good will allow us to do; for there 
is a u Sweet little Cherub that sits up aloft, keeps a watch for the life 
of poor Jack.” By accounts that I had from my friends, when I came 
to the years of recollection, I was informed that I was born at sea, in the 
year of our Lord 1777, on the 20th of August; my father being master 
of a brig belonging to Hull, in Yorkshire, and when I was born, he was 
bound on a voyage from London to Hamburgh; but my mother being 
very poorly, she and I were left at a place called Cuxhaven, at the 
entrance of the River Elbe. But my father being obliged to proceed 
upon his return voyage, my mother and me were left at Hamburgh, at 
the consul’s. And the winter setting in sooner and severer than my 
father expected—for he expected to make another voyage before the 
winter set in—me and my mother were left at Hamburgh all the winter; 
but I being very poorly, and not expected to live, my mother was per¬ 
suaded to have me christened; and I was christened at St. Catherine’s 
Church at Hamburgh, when I was four months old. 

My father was expected to be at Hamburgh in the beginning of the 
next year; but in the first voyage that he was going to make, in the year 
1778, he was cast away, and all hands drowned, at the entrance of the 
river, near about the same spot where I was born. My mother belonging 
to Kirkwall, in the Orkneys, she and me went down there, and there I 
spent my childhood, till my mother died, when I was about eight years 
old. My mother having a sister who lived at Boston, in Lincolnshire, 
who was down in Kirkwall when my mother died, she, after all things 
were settled, took me with her to Boston, where I had a grandmother 
living, and. between my aunt and my grandmother, I soon became a 
spoiled child: for as young as I was, I soon found out that they were 
very fond of me; for my aunt had no children herself, and my grand¬ 
mother never had any more children but my father; so if I committed 
a fault at my aunt’s, where I lived, I only had to run to my grandmother’s, 
and she was sure to take my part; and the same if I committed myself 
at my grandmother’s, my aunt was sure to take my part. It was my 
misfortune to lose my parents so soon. I sha’n’t say nothing of the 
many tricks and pranks I played my poor old grandmother and my aunt; 

(285) 



NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


286 

but I passed my time at Boston till the beginning of the year 1790, when 
1 got acquainted with a young man by the name of William Jackson, 
and his father was mate of a brig belonging to Boston, and they wanted 
an apprentice, and I persuaded my poor old grandmother to let me go a 
voyage upon trial, which I did, and it being summer-time, and fine 
weather, and I liked it so well, that, when we returned to Boston, I was 
bound apprentice for seven years to Mr. Ingelow; and I was put on 
board of a brig called the “ Joseph and Ann.” The master of the brig, 
a man called William Turner, was a very good man as far as seaman¬ 
ship goes, but he was in other respects a man of very bad morals; and 
me being young and giddy, I did not gain anything by it, for what good 
qualities I had belonging to me were soon lost; for I had always been 
used to say my prayers night and morning, and at my meals; but, seeing 
no one else do it, I soon forgot it, and I thought within myself I should 
do as well as the rest. 

Our first voyage, after I joined the brig, was from Boston to London 
with a cargo of oats, and, thanks be to God, we got there safe, as many 
ships were lost, for it blew a gale of wind nearly the whole three weeks 
we were on our passage; for it was in the month of November, and I 
wished myself many times back again in Boston along with my old 
grandmother; but I soon forgot it all when I came to London; for, when 
we got there, our captain got a freight to go to Naples, up the Mediter¬ 
ranean, to carry a cargo of pilchards from Falmouth. When I heard 
that we were going to a foreign country, I forgot all the troubles of my 
former voyage, and I was glad to go. We proceeded on our voyage to 
Falmouth, and I got on middling well; we sailed from Falmouth as soon 
as the convoy was ready, and I left the Land’s End of old England the 
last day of the year 1790, and, thanks be to God, we arrived safe at 
Naples after a passage of six weeks. I don’t wish to trouble the reader 
with an account of the different places we traded to, but we stood up 
the Mediterranean, trading from one place to another, till the year 1794, 
when we got a freight for London, where we arrived safe in August the 
same year, and, after discharging our cargo, our brig was obliged to go 
into dock to get repaired, and when that was done, we went down to 
Boston; when we got there, I found that my grandmother was dead, and 
my aunt was going to live at Hull. What property my grandmother had 
left was left to me; but, being young and foolish, I soon got clear of it 
all; and our brig being bound to London again, where we arrived at the 
beginning of 1795, and we got a freight to go to Cardiff*, in Wales, to 
get a cargo of iron to take to Gibraltar. We sailed from London in the 
beginning of March, and we had a strong north-east gale to drive us 
down the Channel: and when we got to the Land’s End of England, the 
wind was against us, for we were bound up the Bristol Channel; so we 
were obliged to keep the ship off and on in Mount’s Bay till the weather 
moderated, for it blew a heavy gale of wind from the north north-east. 

Now, I forgot to mention how many hands we carried in the brig 
when we sailed from London; we had eight on board altogether—namely, 
the master and mate, four men before the mast, and two boys; and we 
had the misfortune to lose one man overboard when we got under weigh 
in the Downs; so there were but seven left on board when our misfor¬ 
tune happened, which was on the 17th day of March, about two o’clock 
in the morning, when, standing off the land, we struck upon a rock 
called the Randell Stone, which lays in Mount’s Bay, about three or four 
miles off the land; and it blowing a heavy gale of wind, and, at the 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 287 

same time, a heavy sea running, our poor old brig soon went to pieces; 
but thanks be to God Almighty, who allowed us time enough to get our 
long-boat out before the mast went out of her, and six of us, out of the 
seven, got safe into her before the brig went to pieces; the other man 
must, have been knocked overboard when the mast fell, for we could see 
nothing of him, for it was very dark, and we that were in tlie boat saved 
nothing, only what we had on, and I had the misfortune of losing my 
shoes olf my feet in getting into the boat. After we got clear of the 
wreck, we tried our best to get the boat in shore, but it blowing so hard, 
we could not hold our own; and, when daylight came, we found our¬ 
selves about six or seven miles from the land, and still drifting out as 
fast as we could. The weather being clear, we could see the islands 
of Scilly to leeward of us, and our master being a man that had been 
brought up in the coasting trade, was well acquainted, for he had been 
several times in the Scilly Islands; so we determined to bear up for a 
place called Grimsby, and our master intended to go through a place 
called the Crow Sound; but our misfortune was not complete yet, for it 
being nearly high water by the time we got near the island, and the 
rocks being nearly all covered, our master mistook the channel, and we 
were hove in among the breakers, though we tried our best to get clear 
of them, and the second sea that struck us capsized our boat, and I 
found myself hove against a middling steep rock, where, by God’s help, 
I contrived to hold on; and, having no shoes on, I got up to the top of 
the rock, where I could see my shipmates trying to get; but only one 
succeeded in getting up, and that was our old mate, a man nearly sixty 
years of age, and he kicked off his shoes before he succeeded in getting 
where I was: and here now I had a great cause to be thankful to the 
Almighty Giver of all mercies for his providential care over me in 
making me lose my shoes before I left the brig; for what I thought the 
greatest misfortune to me ten minutes before, proved the only means for 
me to preserve my life; for if I had been struggling in the water along 
with my shipmates, I should have had no thought of kicking my shoes 
off to preserve my life; for I know myself that three men out of the 
four that we saw struggling for their lives had heavy sea-boots on, and 
they, being full of water, caused them soon to go down; for the mate 
told me himself afterward, that the rocks being so slippery, that he would 
never have got up if he had not hove his shoes away; so here we got on 
the top of the rock, seeing our poor shipmates drowning one after the 
other, and we were not able to help them. But, as I said before, that it 
was near high water when our second misfortune happened; and we 
soon found that, as the tide ebbed, the water got a good deal smoother, 
and me and the mate considered it best for us to contrive to get nearer 
to the island, from which we were about three quarters of a mile. So 
we waited till about half past two o’clock, for the mate had his watch in 
his pocket; and then we contrived to get in shore, and a tiresome job 
we had of it, for we had several places to swim across; and the mate, 
being an old man, was very much fatigued, being wet and cold such a 
long time—for a north-east wind blows pretty cold in the month of 
March. But we contrived to get to the main island about six o’clock 
that evening, and we both kneeled down to thank the Almighty for his 
mercy to us. 

And now, that through the mercy of the Almighty we got safe landed 
what to do next was to be considered; for you may depend that we both 
were hungry, and night coming on, and in a strange place, where there 


288 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


are no roads to direct you—for 1 had been upon the highest rock that I 
could see near us, to see if I could see anything of a house, or any 
signs of any habitation, but I could not see anything; so we resolved to 
try to get under the lee of some rock, for we were still on the windward 
part of the island. But before we left the beach, I went to see if I 
could find any shell-fish, for I felt hunger pinching me since I came on 
shore, and, thanks be to God, I found some; and I took them up to my 
partner in distress, and we ate them; and afterward we went to look for 
some place to shelter us from the wind and the weather; and, after a 
little time, we found a place like a cave under the lee of a rock; and 
close by I found a small puddle of fresh water, which we wanted very 
much, for we were very thirsty; and, after returning thanks to the 
Almighty, we laid ourselves down to sleep, and I slept very well till the 
morning, when my partner called me, for he was very poorly, and could 
not stand upon his legs. I felt very stiff when I first got up; but I soon 
got pretty well again. And now we resolved that, as my partner was not 
able to move, I was to go by myself to see if I could find anybody to 
help me to bring my partner away, and to get something to eat; for the 
old mate, as luck would have it, had three shillings and sixpence in his 
pocket, beside his watch: the money he gave to me, and I parted from 
him with a heavy heart, for I was afraid I should never see him again 
alive, for he was very bad; so away I went; and then I found for the 
first time what it was to be alone in a strange place. I had traveled, I 
suppose, about two miles, when coming to an open bay, where I saw 
some ships lying at an anchor; and you may depend I was glad enough at 
seeing them; and shortly afterward I had the pleasure of seeing some 
houses, but I was still a good distance from them; but I traveled on till 
I got pretty near them, when I had the satisfaction of seeing two men. 

I sung out to them as loud as I could, for fear of losing them again; but 
they heard me, and they came toward me; and when I came to them, 1 
told them my case, and they very kindly took me home with them, and 
gave me something to eat and to drink; and I told them of my poor old 
partner that I had left in the cave, and what state I had left him in. I 
offered them some money for what they gave me, but they refused it; 
and as soon as I had finished what they had given me to eat, they took 
me to a man by the name of Mr. Gilbert, who, I found afterward, was 
the head man in the place, and a very good man he was; and he sent 
three men along with me to fetch my old partner from the cave, which, 
after a great deal of trouble, we found; and glad enough I was to find 
that he was alive: and, after giving the old man something to eat and to 
drink, we carried the old man to Grimsby, for that was the name of the 
place I had been to, where the people used us very kindly; but 
my poor old partner got worse and worse every day. Though Mr. Gil¬ 
bert was kind enough to send for a doctor to St. Mary’s for him, which 
is the head town in the island, he died the sixth day after we were 
wrecked. As for myself, I got pretty well in a few days; and after 
staying and lending a hand to bury my old shipmate, I shipped myself 
on board of a brig called the “ Hope,” belonging to Bridgewater, which 
was bound to London. But before I left Old Grimsby, I told Mr. Gilbert 
where the owner of the brig lived that I had been cast away in, so that 
he might get paid for the trouble and expenses he had been at during 
our stay there; and as soon as the wind and weather would permit, I 
sailed for London in my new brig. The master of her was a very good 
man, and we arrived in London the 17th day of April. My new master 


.NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


289 

liked me very well, and he wrote to Mr. Ingelow, in Boston, about me. 
to let him know where I was; and Mr. Ingelow, having no ship that 
wanted an apprentice, sent me my indentures and my wages, after 
serving him five years out of the seven years that I was bound for; so 
my new master got me bound apprentice to him for three years. I sailed 
in the “Hope,” of Bridgewater, till the year 1798—chiefly in the coasting 
trade—and I was very well contented, for our master was a very good 
man, and the owners had promised me a mate’s situation as soon as I 
got out of my time. And in April, in 1798, we were bound from London 
to Bridgewater, and getting down the Channel as far as the Lizard, and 
we being bound off the Bristol Channel, the wind being at that time 
about north-east, and blowing a strong gale, and our ship being rather 
light, we got blown off the land; and the gale continuing for eight or 
ten days, we got drifted a long ways off; and our master not being a 
navigator, though he was a very good coaster, so that when the gale was 
over, and we got fine weather, we did not know where we were, but we 
knew well enough that we had been drifted to the westward. We had 
to run back to the eastward, and the second day after we had fine weather. 
We fell in with a Mount’s Bay boat, who, like ourselves, had been 
blown off* the land, who was very short of provisions and water, of which, 
thanks be to God, we had plenty; and we gave them some, and they 
gave us some brandy and tcbacco—for they were smugglers—for the 
provisions which we gave them; and they directed us what course to 
steer in for the land, and we parted company. And the next day morn¬ 
ing we fell in with the “ Brilliant ” frigate, who made us heave to, and 
she sent a boat on board of us to go a pressing; and our master being 
half drunk, and the rest of the crew being no better, we got a quarrel¬ 
ing, when the lieutenant of the frigate came on board, and, through our 
master being drunk, I got pressed; for I being out of my time two days 
before this happened, and the master told the lieutenant so when we 
were mustered; so I was sent on board of the frigate; and a fine large 
ship I thought she was when I first got on board of her, and I was put 
in the maintop; but I soon found my mistake out, for the very first night, 
at reefing topsail, I saw seven men flogged for not being smart enough; 
and me never seeing a man flogged before, I wished myself back again 
in my little brig. So here I could see the fruits of drunkenness; for if 
all hands had been sober aboard of the “ Hope ” when we fell in with 
the frigate, I should have been stowed away; but it was my lot, and 
I was obliged to content myself where I was, for our usage on board of 
the “Brilliant” was very cruel; for we had nine men doing duty as 
boatswain’s mates on board of her, and there was starting and flogging 
all day long, and the usage was very little fit to reconcile me to a man- 
of-war; but being young, and finding it was no use to fret, I made the 
best I could of it. And our ship being only just come out of Plymouth, 
and being bound on a six months’ cruise in the Bay of Biscay, we went 
away to the westward on a cruise, and on the 20th of October we fell 
in with part of a West India convey, homeward bound, who had been 
separated in a gale of wind on the banks of Newfoundland, and had 
lost their commander; and theie being no man-of-war along with them, 
our captain found himself in i.uty bound to see them safe into port; and 
away we went along with fi.em for Old England, and in five days we 
arrived safe in Plymouth Sound, having a strong westerly wind all the 
way. And one of the masters of one of the ships told our captain, that 
about a week before they fell in with our ship they had been chased by 
19 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


290 

a French privateer, and that the privateer had taken two ships belonging 
to London, deeply laden, and he believed that the privateer had taken 
them into Santa Cruz, a town in the island of Teneriffe, one of the 
Canary Islands. Our captain acquainting the admiral that was in Ply- 
mouth with it, he gave him permission to go to Teneriffe and try to cut 
them out; and he sent the “ Talbot,” a sloop of war, along with us; and 
we sailed from Plymouth in the middle of November, and having nothing 
but strong westerly winds against us, we were nearly three weeks before 
we got to Teneriffe; and in our passage we had the good fortune of 
taking two prizes—the one the very privateer that had taken the two 
ships that we were going to cut out. She was a fine brigantine, belong¬ 
ing to St. Maloes, and the other a ship belonging to Bristol, that had 
been taken by the privateer, homeward bound, only two days before we 
took them again. 

And now, having arrived off the island, we arranged everything to go 
in with the boats to cut the two ships out, and on the 4th day of Decem¬ 
ber we left the ships, about four o’clock in the afternoon. There were 
seven boats of us altogether—four from our ship, and three from the 
“ Talbot.” The boat that I was in was a five-oared boat, half gig and 
half cutter. She was a very fine boat, and the commanding officer was 
in her, which was the first lieutenant of our frigate, who pulled back¬ 
ward and forward to the rest of the boats, to encourage the men, and to 
give his orders. We got into Santa Cruz harbor about ten o’clock in the 
evening, and we were lucky enough to board one of the ships, and get 
possession of her without getting any one hurt; but not so with the 
other ship, for the noise we made in boarding the first ship put them on 
their guard, and she, being a ship which mounted ten guns, opened her 
fire on our boats, which were three boats which had to board her; and 
I belonging to the commanding officer’s boat, who was on board of the 
first ship that had been taken, and who was under weigh by this time, 
and was going out of the harbor with a light breeze of wind off the land, 
and our officer seeing how the other boats were likely to be handled, 
ordered the pinnace and his own boat to go to the assistance of their 
shipmates; and just as our boat got clear of the quarter of the ship, a 
shot struck her right in the middle, and killed one man, and wounded two 
more; and it being very dark by this time, and our boat being very soon 
full of water, we could not give any assistance to our shipmates, nor 
could we pull back to the prize; so we were obliged every man to do 
the best they could for themselves, and I was once more left in a bad 
situation; but, thanks be to God, I could swim very well, and I seeing a 
vessel lying pretty close to me, I swum to her, which proved to be an 
American schooner. I hung on by her cable some time, and the people 
being all on deck, I could hear them speak English; and at last one of 
them looking over the bows of the schooner, I spoke to him, and asked 
him to let me come on board, and he gave me a rope’s end, and I soon 
got on board. When I first got on board of her, I was taken aft to the 
mate, and I told him how I came there, and he told the captain, who told 
me that he would be obliged to take me on shore, in the morning, to the 
governor; but ordered some of the men to give me some dry clothing, 
and something to eat and to drink; and, in fact, they behaved very well 
to me. All this time the ship kept firing at the boats, and the boats 
were obliged to retreat with their one prize; for the forts, getting alarmed 
by this time, began to open fire; but the boats got their ship safe out, 
for we could not see anything of her in the morning. When morning 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


291 


was come, and I could see what sort of people I had got amongst, I saw 
a young man on board of the schooner that I thought I had seen some¬ 
where; and, when I came to inquire, I found that he was an old ship¬ 
mate of mine, and fellow-apprentice in the “ Joseph and Ann,” and he 
was second mate of the schooner, and his name was James Martin. 
And, when we began to know one another, he told the captain of the 
schooner that I was a man that served my time to the sea service; and, 
the schooner being short of hands, the captain of the schooner sent for 
me, and told me that, as I was a young man that served my time out of 
Boston—and he had no business to know what Boston it was, whether it 
was Boston in England or America—and if I had a mind to sign the 
Articles, he would put me on the schooner’s books, and give me thirty 
dollars a month; and he would take good care no one should know how 
I got there. 

Now you may depend I was not long considering about what to do; 
for, if I had refused to join the schooner, I should have had to go to a 
Spanish prison; so I agreed with the captain of the schooner—she was 
called the u Speedy,” of Baltimore. Now this schooner had brought 
out a new governor, from Cadiz, for the islands, and she was going to 
carry the old one home again, to any part of Spain or France she might 
be able to pitch into; and we laid at Teneriffe for nearly two months 
before the governor was ready to go, and by this time I got quite com¬ 
fortable on board of her. And we sailed in the latter end of February, 
1799, from Teneriffe; and, after being chased by many of the English 
cruisers, for the “ Speedy” sailed remarkably fast, we got into a place 
called Cordivan, in France, the entrance of the Bordeaux River, by the 
latter part of March; and we got up to Bordeaux by the beginning of 
April. And, after the governor was landed, and his things out of the 
schooner, and there being no freights for the schooner, the captain sold 
her to the French Government, she being a very fast sailing vessel. 
And the crew, me in the number, were paid our wages, and sent about 
our business; and me and my old shipmate, James Martin, went and 
shipped on board of a large ship, under Hamburgh colors, that was taking 
in a cargo of wine for Hamburgh; and you may depend that me and my 
friend were glad to go somewhere, for it was dangerous to be ashore; 
for if the police knew that you was a sailor, and not belonging to any 
ship, they took you and sent you on board of one of their frigates; but, 
thanks be to God, we kept ourselves clear of them; and, by the latter 
part of April, our ship being loaded, we sailed from the town of Bor¬ 
deaux, and we got clear of the river by the beginning of May. And, 
after being at sea some days, our captain called all the men aft, and told 
them that he was not bound to Hamburgh, but that he expected to go to 
London, but that his orders were to go to the Island of Guernsey, and 
wait for orders; and, after a long and tiresome passage, we arrived at 
Guernsey in the middle part of June. And me and my old shipmate, 
knowing well enough that if the ship went to London, we should be 
pressed, and having such a great dread of an English man-of-war, on 
account of the usage I had received, we went to our master, who was a 
very good man, and asked him for our discharge from the ship; and, 
after telling him our reason for doing so, he gave it to us, and paid us 
our wages; and ashore we went at Guernsey. And, after staying ashore 
three or four days, me and my shipmate joined a privateer, called the 
« Blue-Eyed Maid of Guernsey.” Our vessel was lugger-rigged, and 
mounted sixteen guns; and we carried one hundred and twenty men,. 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


292 

with six months’ protection from the press; and, thanks be to God, we 
were very lucky in her, for we took a great many prizes and recaptures— 
the lugger being a very fast sailing vessel; and me and my partner 
stopped in her till the year 1801. 

When peace came, we were paid off, and I had about three hundred 
and fifty pounds, wages and prize-money, altogether; and me and my 
friend went from Guernsey to London, intending to go to Boston, where 
we had served our time, and to see our old friends. But this is the way 
of the world, for man appoints, and the Almighty disappoints: for the 
second day after I arrived in London—where we got in June, 1801—I 
was taken very bad of a fever, and I was obliged to keep my bed for two 
months; but I soon got better. And my old shipmate, who, during my 
illness, had gone to Boston, and had promised to return to London again 
as soon as his business was settled, but he did not; for, poor fellow, he 
was taken with the same complaint that I had, as soon as he arrived in 
Boston, and died in a week after he got home. So now, being left to 
myself again, and being tired of going to sea, I intended to settle myself 
on shore. With this intent, I went to Mr. Scovel, who was owner of 
several wharves, where the traders used to discharge and take in their 
cargoes, and spoke to him, and told him my intention, and likewise to 
ask him what the best use would be that I could make of my money; and 
he was very kind to me, and told me that I had best put my money in the 
bank, and that I should have constant employment at any wharf that he 
had, that I was a mind to choose. And now, having this point settled, 
I got to come to another; and that is, that during my illness a young 
woman that used to attend on me, I found that I had got very fond of 
her, and I could see, by the attention she paid me, that I was not indif¬ 
ferent to her; and as I was going to stop on shore, I thought I wanted a 
wife, and, after a little courtship, I gained her consent, and we got 
married at St. Olave’s Church, which is in Tooley Street, in the Borough, 
on the 27th day of December, 1801. 

I had taken a little house in Vine Yard, close to Pickle Herring Stairs; 
and having money, I set up a little shop to sell cabbages, and potatoes, 
and wood, and coals; and, thanks be to God, me and my wife we done 
very well, for I used to go every day to work at the wharves, loading ana 
discharging coasting vessels, and my wife minded the shop. And so 
things went on quite comfortable till the latter part of July, 1802, when 
a strange accident occurred which put an end to all my happiness for a 
long time. The case was this: my wife’s mother-in-law was a woman 
greatly given to drink, and she used to come to my wife and get things 
upon trust, and go and spend the money in drink; and having run up a 
pretty good score, my wife spoke to her about it; but she, being half 
drunk, abused my wife, and struck her. 

My landlord, Mr. Bland, seeing the affair, came down and told me of 
it, for my house was close to the wharf where I was working; and I ran 
up directly, and ordered her out of the house, and told her not to come 
there any more; and a good many words passed between us; and at last 
she told me she would make me sorry for turning her out of doors; but 
I did not mind her. But I soon had occasion to be sorry for what had 
happened; for the war between France and England had broke out 
again, and the press was very hot; and my wife’s mother-in-law went to 
the lieutenant of the press-gang, and informed against me that I was a 
seafaring man, and served my time at sea; and about half past ten 
o’clock that same evening, just when 1 was going to shut my shop up, the 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


293 

press-gang came and took me, too. I had a scuffle for it before I was 
taken, for I knocked the first two down that came into my house; but I was 
soon overpowered, and was taken by force, and taken down to the boat 
which they had brought to Pickle Herring Stairs; and from there I was 
taken on board the “ Enterprise,” which lay at Tower Hill Stairs, where 
I was put, both legs in irons, and my hands tied behind me; and there 
l laid till the morning, when me and some more pressed men were put 
on board of a tender, and sent down to the big Nore on board of the 
u Old Namur,” which lay flag-ship there; and next morning I was sent 
on board of the “ Childers,” ten-gun brig, to be sent round to Spithead, 
where we arrived on the 5th of August, 1802. And now having come 
a little to myself, you may depend my feelings and my mind was none 
of the best. 

The chief thing that grieved me was thinking about my wife; for I 
knew she was about seven months gone in the family way; but the only 
way I had left to do her any good was to write to her; and having, by 
good luck, three guineas in my pocket, which I put there in the evening 
before I was pressed, to pay for some potatoes, in the morning, which I 
had bought, I went and bought some paper, and pens, and ink, and I 
wrote a letter to my landlord, Mr. Bland, and told him where I was; and 
I told him to go to Mr. Scovel, the gentleman that had my money, for 
him to get two substitutes for me, which would come to about sixty 
pounds per man, and to let me know how my wife was, and to be sure 
not to let my wife’s mother-in-law come there. I directed this letter to 
Mr. Bland, for fear, if I directed it to my own house, it might have been 
stopped. I remained on board of the “ Childers ” three days after we 
arrived at Spithead; and then I was sent on board of the “Royal 
William,” which lay flag-ship at Spithead. And now all my hopes being 
at an end of getting an answer to my letter, as my letter would be 
directed to the “ Childers,” I turned to and wrote again, and told them 
where I was; but I might have saved myself the trouble, for I was only 
three days on board of the “ Royal -William ” before I was drafted to 
the “ Albion,” of seventy-four guns, and she was bound to the East 
Indies for to take out a convoy of merchant ships. We sailed from 
Spithead in the beginning of September, 1802; and I left England with 
a heavy heart, not having heard from my friends. I often thought that 
none of my letters had gone; and being very careless of myself I gave 
way to all sorts of badness, gambling, drunkenness, cursing and swear¬ 
ing, which brought me continually into trouble. 

We were obliged to bear up in a heavy gale from the westward, for 
Plymouth, after being clear of the Land’s End; and after having all our 
defects made good, we sailed from Plymouth the 29th day of September, 
1802, with a fine breeze from the north-east, and we had a very fine 
passage till the 5th of November, when we fell in with two French mer¬ 
chant ships, who did not know that the war had broke out again between 
England and France, and so they became easy prizes to us; and I had 
the good luck to be sent on board of one of them, called the “ La 
Favorite.” She was from the Isle of France, and was bound to Bor¬ 
deaux, in France; and after the exchange of the crew, and our captain 
sending water and provisions on board, we parted company from the 
fleet for Old England; and you may depend I was glad enough. But 
the ship that I was in was a very dull sailing vessel, and she was very 
leaky, so we made very slow progress across the Trade Winds; but by 
the beginning of December we fell in with a westerly wind, which was 


294 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


a fair wind for England; and you may depend we made the best use we 
could of it; for we were only complete with six weeks’ provisions when 
we left our ship, and we had now left her a month, and still were a long 
distance from England. 

Now the other prize, our partner, sailed a good deal better than us; 
and parted company with us the second night after. We had a fair 
wind, and we never saw any more of her, which was a very rascally 
trick of them; for they knowing we were very leaky, they ought to have 
stopped by us. But we having a fair wind and fine weather, we kept on 
our course till we got into soundings, on the 15th day of December; and 
the next day, in the morning, it being very hazy, and very little wind, 
we saw a lugger close to us, which proved to be a French privateer. 
Now if our partner had been along with us, we might have had a fight 
for it; but being by ourselves, and only mounting four guns, and being 
short of provisions, for we had been six upon four for several days, and 
being continually at the pumps, we were very little fit to fight a vessel 
mounting sixteen guns, and one hundred and twenty men; so we were 
boarded, and taken by the privateer; and we found that our other prize 
had been taken two days before by the same lugger. For, getting 
information from some of the Frenchmen that there was another ship 
coming, she laid to for us in our track, and we were taken, and I was 
sent on board of the French lugger. And now I had a sure prospect 
before me to be made a prisoner of war at the very commencement of 
it; but, thanks be to God, I did not stay very long with them; for the 
Frenchmen on board of the lugger used us very well, and I had not been 
many days on board of the lugger, when I fell in with a young man on 
board of her, who was a prisoner like myself, who had been a shipmate 
of mine in the 66 Blue-Eyed Maid of Guernsey,” who could speak the 
French language as well as any Frenchman going, and he told me that 
he would not go to a French prison if he could help it, and I told him 
the same. 

We steered, with the prize in tow, for St. Maloes, and we got into the 
harbor on the fifth day of January, 1803. Now the captain and the mate 
of the privateer had both been in an English prison, and they had been 
used very well in England, and the pair of them spoke very good Eng¬ 
lish, and he told us he was very sorry to see us go to prison; and he told 
me and the Guernsey man that he would do anything in his power to 
keep us out of prison. 

Now when the privateer and the prizes got into St. Maloes, it was late 
in the afternoon, and the crew being overjoyed at taking so many prizes, 
and got them all safe in, and their friends coming to see them, and 
bringing them something to eat and to drink, that by the time it was 
dark, there was scarce a sober man on board of the privateer; and the 
captain not being able to send us on shore in the evening, he kindly told 
us to look out for ourselves, for he would be obliged to send us on shore 
in the morning. We thanked him kindly for his good wishes toward us, 
and me and the Guernsey man said we would make the most of it. 
Now one of the prizes’ boats was towed astern , of the privateer, and 
with her we attempted to make our escape; and the first thing we done 
after it was dark, was to see how many of our fellow-prisoners we could 
get to go along with us; and we soon got nine more beside ourselves. 
And the next thing we done was to haul the boat up along side, and 
put in her anything that we thought necessary for our voyage, such as 
provisions and water. 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


295 

We had the good luck to find two breakers of water, each breaker 
holding about seven gallons; and, as I told you before, the Frenchmen’s 
friends fetched plenty of bread and other things on board; we found a 
pretty good stock of it, enough, with care, to last us two or three days, 
by which time we expected, with God’s help, to be in England. And 
after getting one of the privateer’s compasses into the boat, we were 
all ready; but it would not do for us to start before the rounds had been, 
which was a guard-boat that pulled round the harbor once a night; so we 
dropped our boat astern again, and laid down quietly till the guard-boat 
was past, which came round about ten o’clock in the morning. And our 
Guernsey man was lucky enough to hear the watchword for the morning; 
for in going out of the harbor, we had to pass close to a fort on our star* 
board hand, and the sentry was sure to hail you to ask the countersign. 
So after the guard-boat was gone, and everything was quiet, we started, 
and we passed the fort about three o’clock in the morning; and, thanks 
be to God, we got clear of the mouth of the harbor long before 
daylight. 

Now the wind, when we left the harbor, was about east-south-east, and 
we being bound to the northward, we had a fair wind, and a fine breeze; 
and we all expected to have made some part of England by the next 
day; but our hopes were very soon all frustrated, for toward the middle 
part of our first day at sea, the wind came round to the north-east, and 
from there to north-north-east; and it came to blow very hard, and we 
were obliged to close-reef our sails, and lay as close to the wind as we 
could: and we made our course nearly north-west, which was four points 
off our course that we intended to steer for. It blew very hard all night, 
and it was very cold, and you may depend we were all very glad when it 
pleased the Almighty to send us daylight once more; but we could not 
see anything of any ship or land, and we all sat down to eat our scanty 
breakfast; but before we sat down, we all went to prayers to return 
thanks to God for preserving us during the night, and hoping that the 
Almighty would protect us during the day. 

After we had done our breakfast, the wind lulling a bit, we shook one 
reef out of our foresail. But not to tire my reader with everything that 
we done; we stayed in this condition for four days, the weather being 
very thick and hazy, and very little wind. We saw a large ship close by 
us, and being all hands very weak, we got our oars out, and pulled after 
the ship, which at last we accomplished; and she proved to be a ship 
belonging to Bremen, with emigrants from Hanover; for the French had 
drove them out of their country, and they were bound to Baltimore, in 
America. When we first got along side of the ship, the people on board 
of her came to the gangway, and seemed quite surprised to see so many 
poor wretched looking men in so small a boat; for our boat was only 
twenty-five feet long; and they asked us, in German, where we came 
from, and what we wanted. Now I being the only one that could under¬ 
stand a little of the German language, which I learned at the time 
that I belonged to the Hamburgh ship that I mentioned, I told them that 
we were Englishmen that had run away from a French prison. 

As soon as they heard it, they told us to come up; and you may 
depend we were glad to hear that; and we tried our best to get up, but 
we could not, for we were so weak, and so cold, that we could not stand 
upon our legs. So the captain seeing this, he was kind enough to send 
some of the crew into the boat to help us, and they were obliged to haul 
us up the ship’s side with ropes; and, thanks be to God, we all got safely 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


2 % 

on board; and a miserable set we were, for we had been nearly five days 
in a small open boat, and when we started we had scarcely provisions 
enough to last us two days; and then to be exposed, in the month of 
January, to a cold north-east wind, and plenty of snow beating about us; 
so you may depend we were in a very bad state; and if they had given us 
the ship and all her cargo, we could not stand upon our legs. But the 
captain and the passengers were very kind to us; and the doctor had us 
put to bed as soon as he could, and they gave me a little sago and some 
wine, and I soon fell into a sound sleep, from which I did not awake till 
the next day; and, thanks be to God, and the good people’s care, I was 
able to come on deck in four or five days’ time; but we had the misfor¬ 
tune to lose three of my companions, who died the day after we were 
picked up. 

And now there being only six of us left, and some of them were a 
long time before they got well; but, in eight or ten days’ time, I was as 
well as ever I was; and I was able to be of some service to my pre¬ 
servers; for we falling in with some very squally weather, we split a 
good many of our sails, and I being a middling good sail-maker, I was 
able to repair them, which pleased the captain very much. Now the 
captain had been kind enough to hoist our boat in, and she being a very 
good boat, the captain asked me if I would sell the boat to him; for I 
being the only one that could speak any German, is the reason the captain 
asked me. I told him that, if he thought the boat was of any use to 
him, he might have her, and welcome; for, in my opinion, we owed him 
a great deal more than the value of the boat, for his kindness toward us 
all. But he said he would not have the boat at that price, for he had 
done no more than his duty; but, as we were very short of clothing, he 
would give us a suit of clothes and a couple of shirts a piece out of the 
slop chest for the boat, to which I agreed at once, and thanked him very 
kindly for his kind offer; and he gave us our clothes; and, in fact, every 
one on board of that ship behaved better than if we had been their own 
brothers; and we all were very comfortable on board of her, till the 16 th 
day of February, when we fell in with an English brig, who had lost her 
foremast and bowsprit by running foul of an iceberg; and she lost five 
men overboard when the accident happened, so had only four men left. 

Our captain asked us if we would go on board of the brig to assist our 
countrymen, and we agreed to go on board of the brig; and you may 
depend we left the Bremen ship with a heavy heart, for they all had 
been so kind to us; and our old captain was kind enough to give us a 
spare spar for to rig a jury foremast; and he told the master of the brig 
to pay the price of the spar to us, if it pleased God to send him safe 
into port. We all thanked the captain heartily for his kindness toward 
us, and we parted company. 

Now the brig that we got on board of was called the “ Spring-flower,” 
belonging to Liverpool; and she was last from Port Royal, Jamaica, 
bound to Liverpool. She sailed from Port Royal under convoy of a 
frigate; but being very deeply laden, and a very dull sailer, she lost the 
convoy in a gale of wind; and a few days afterward she had the mis¬ 
fortune to run foul of an iceberg, and lost her foremast and bowsprit, 
and five of her men. When we came on board of the brig, we found 
the master, two men, and a boy, and us six coming on board, made ten 
altogether; and we turned to with a good will, and got our shears up, 
and rigged our jury foremast and bowsprit, which, with God’s help, we 
finished the second day; so that we were able to set a maintop-gallant 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 297 

sail for a fore-topsail, and a lower studding-sail for a foresail, and a fore¬ 
topmast staysail for a jib. 

Now the captain of the brig being well pleased with our work, and 
seeing we were very short of clothing, and especially when he heard 
how we got on board of the Bremen ship, was kind enough to give us 
the men’s clothes that had been drowned, for our use; and the mate of 
the brig being drowned, he made me mate in his stead, for I was the 
only man out of the whole that could read and write. Now the brig had 
been out a long time at sea, and though she was bound to England, we 
could not attempt a passage to England in that time of the year, and the 
state the vessel was in. The island of Bermuda was the nearest land 
to us, so we steered for Bermuda, where we arrived safe on the 3d day 
of March, 1803. 

And now being upon my own hands again, and having a little money, 
and a few clothes, me and my old shipmate, the Guernsey man, shipped on 
board of a brig called the “ Sprightly,” about one hundred and twenty 
tons burden, and she was bound to Barbadoes, one of the West India 
Islands, and we sailed from Bermuda on the 2d day of April, 1803, and 
we arrived at the island of Barbadoes, after a pleasant passage, the 
latter end of April; and I traded, on board of the “ Sprightly,” from one 
island to another, till August, 1804. And I had made a good bit of 
money by this time, when, on the 24th day of August, 1804, we were 
coming up to windward, and I had the middle watch: it was just after 
two o’clock in the morning, for I had just been relieved from the helm; 
the weather being very thick and hazy, we were run down by a large 
ship, called the “ Big Ann,” of London. She came down upon us so 
quick and unawares, that I had only just time to get hold of her bobstays, 
and I sung out to the rest of them that were on deck; but only one, 
beside myself, had the good fortune to save himself, and that was the 
mate of the brig. The rest of the crew, six in number, found a watery 
grave. The captain of the “Big Ann” tried the best that he could do, 
for he hove to directly, and lowered two boats down, and pulled about 
in our direction. 

We could not see anything of the brig, or of the unfortunate crew; 
so, when everything was quiet again on board, and made sail again, the 
captain called the mate and me, and asked us the particulars about our 
brig, and we told him all we knew about it. He sent us down below, 
and told us to lay down till the morning, and he would see what he 
could do for us; but, for my part, I could not sleep, and I believe my 
partner in misfortune was the same, for I heard him getting up, every 
now and then, and singing out for one of his old shipmates, or singing 
out “ Hard a starboard! there she comes!” I went to him and tried to 
quiet him, but it was of no use, for by the morning he was raving mad; 
and the captain and some of the passengers did all they could for him, 
by bleeding him, and giving him what medicines they thought would do 
him good; but all was of no use, for he died the next day about four 
o’clock in the afternoon. And now I being the only one that was saved 
from the u Sprightly’s ” crew, however all well and hearty only twenty- 
four hours ago, I knelt down and thanked the Almighty Giver of all 
good for his wonderful mercy toward me; and I felt greatly relieved 
afterward. 

Now the ship that I was in was from London, bound to Port Royal, 
Jamaica, and she had a good many passengers on beard, and the 
captain was kind enough to mako a collection for me, and he collected 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


298 

forty-seven dollars for me, which he gave me, in the name of the 
passengers, for the loss of my clothes, and I returned them my sincere 
thanks for their kindness; and the captain told me that, if I liked, I 
could stay on board of his ship all the time that the ship lay in Port 
Royal, or till I got another ship. We arrived in Port Royal on the 28th 
day of August, 1804; and I was obliged to go on shore the next day to 
go to the consul, and tell all that I knew about the loss of the ‘‘Sprightly” 
brig. The brig being insured, I received the wages that was due to me 
to the time she was lost, which amounted to about one hundred and 
eighty dollars; so I was able to lay myself in a good stock of clothes, 
which 1 wanted very much; and I stayed on board the “ Big Ann ” till 
the 15th day of September, when I shipped on board of a ship belonging 
to Liverpool, called the “ King George.” She was bound to the coast 
of Africa, for a cargo of slaves; she was a fine ship, mounting eighteen 
guns, and carried eighty men; and she had a letter-of-marque commis¬ 
sion for to fight her own way. 

We sailed from Port Royal the latter part of September, and we had 
a very pleasant passage across the Trades, and we arrived on the coast 
of Africa, at a place called Anne Bone, the latter part of November; 
and we traded up and down the coast till we got our cargo, which we 
completed by the beginning of February, 1805; but just before we 
sailed, our captain got information, by a ship that arrived there, that two 
French frigates were cruising in their track, from the coast of Africa to 
the West Indies; so our captain altered his mind, and, in room of going 
to the W T est Indies, we steered for Rio de Janeiro, on the coast of the 
Brazils, where we arrived on the 15th day of April, 1805; and as soon 
as we got our cargo of slaves out, and our ship cleaned, we took in a 
cargo of sugar for Liverpool, and we sailed from Rio de Janeiro the last 
day of May, and we were bound for Liverpool; and we had a very good 
passage, though rather a long one, for we were becalmed for twelve days, 
in what is called the “Horse Latitudes;” that was just after we had 
crossed the line; but afterward we got a fine breeze across the north¬ 
east Trades, till the 17th day of July, when we fell in with a fleet of 
English men-of-war. The time of our letter-of-marque commission 
being expired, they came on board of us, and pressed forty men out of 
us; and I was pressed among the rest, and sent on board of the “Spashot,” 
of seventy-four guns. 

So there I was once more on board of an English man-of-war; and I 
hailed for a foreigner, and I said that I belonged to Hamburgh, in Ger¬ 
many, thinking that I should get clear; but it would not do; they would 
not let me go; so when I found 1 could not get clear, I contented myself, 
and tried to make the best of a bad bargain. We kept cruising at sea, 
looking out for French or Spanish ships, till the month of October, when 
Admiral Nelson joined the fleet with some more ships; and then we were 
stationed off Cadiz, till the glorious twenty-first of October, when we 
brought the French and Spanish fleet to action; and we had pretty 
warm work while it lasted, but, thanks be to God, we beat them, and 
gained the victory. And after the action, I was sent on board of one of 
the prizes, a Spanish seventy-four; and she had lost her fore and mizzen¬ 
mast by the board, and it being late in the afternoon before we got on 
board of her, and got the prisoners secured and exchanged, it was nearly 
night before we could begin rigging our jury, fore, and mizzenmast; but by 
daylight next morning we got our fore and mizzen standing; but they 
proved of very little use to us, for, it coming on a gale of wind, we soon 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


299 

lost our jurymast again, and we were driving as fast as we could toward 
the Spanish shore. It is bad enough to be on a lee-shore in a gale of 
wind at any time, but especially when that lee-shore is an enemy’s 
coast; but we found that, if the gale continued, we should have to go 
on shore before morning; so our commanding officer thought best to run 
her on shore while it was daylight. 

To effect this, we had to get the ship before the wind, which we could 
not effect without cutting away the mainmast, which we were obliged to 
do, and then setting a spritsail upon the bowsprit, we got the ship before 
the wind; and as soon as we got the ship before the wind, we opened 
the hatches to let our prisoners come up, so that the poor fellows could 
look out to save their own lives; but the ship run upon a sandy beach, 
but, thanks be to God, being nearly a new ship, and very strong built, 
she kept together, and she soon worked herself broadside on; and us on 
board, heaving all the starboard guns overboard, and rolling all the shot 
we could get at, or any heavy thing, over to the larboard side, we made 
shift to give her good list in shore. And the ship having worked herself 
broadside on, and well into the sand, we contrived to get ashore under her 
lee, which we did by cutting her port gangway and hammock nettings 
away, and launching her boom-boats, which we effected after a good 
deal of trouble, and by which I got my right leg and my arm hurt a 
good deal, which laid me up for some time afterward. Now, after we 
got the boats bailed out, we sent the prisoners ashore first, and then fol¬ 
lowed ourselves afterward; and by four o’clock the next morning—that 
is to say, the 23d of October—we all got safe on shore. 

Now the Spanish prisoners that had come on shore first, some of them 
had been and seen their friends, and, as daylight came on, they came 
down to assist us, which they did, for they brought us some bread, and 
some figs, and some wine, to refresh us, which we wanted very much, 
for we had scarcely tasted anything the last twenty-four hours; and the 
Spaniards behaved very kind to us. As for myself, after I had eaten 
some bread and fruit, and drank some wine, I tried to get up, but I could 
not; and one of the Spaniards, seeing the state that I was in, was kind 
enough to get two or three more of his companions, and lifted me up in 
one of the bullock-carts, in which they had brought down the provisions 
for us, and covered me up with one of their great ponchos; and he 
tapped me on the shoulder, and said, “ Bono English!” And, being 
upon the cart, I was out of the wind and rain—for it blew a heavy gale 
of wind; and I felt myself quite comfortable, only my leg pained me a 
good deal; but, thanks be to God, I soon fell into a sound sleep; and, 
as I heard afterward, the French soldiers came down and marched the 
rest of my shipmates up to Cadiz, and they put them into a Spanish 
prison. As for my part, I was taken up to Cadiz, in the bullock-cart, 
and my kind friend took me to his own house, and had me put to bed, 
where I found myself when I woke. 

Now in the house where I was, it happened to be a boarding house, 
and a good many American sailors boarded there, and when I came te 
myself, my friend, the Spaniard, brought one of the American sailors to 
me, for to ask me if I wanted anything. I told the man very kindly that 
I wanted some one to look at my leg; for I felt my leg very painful. 
Now this young man was mate of an American ship that was getting 
repaired at Cadiz, and he spoke very good Spanish, so he told the Spaniard 
what I wanted, and my friend went away and fetched a doctor, who could 
speak very good English, who dressed my leg, and assured me there 


300 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


were no bones broken, only he told me that I must keep myself very 
quiet, and to be sure not to drink any spirits. 

1 forgot to tell you that the first night that I got on board of the prize, 
while I was down below, to look for some rope, for to lash the jury fore¬ 
mast to the stump of the old foremast, I picked up a belt; but, being in 
a hurry, I never looked into it, but put it around me, under my frock, 
and, being busy at work all the time that I was on board of her, I never 
thought no more about it till, now I was laying in bed, I felt it uncom¬ 
fortable round me, and I asked my new friend, the American mate, if he 
would be kind enough to take it off me. But what was my surprise 
when, on overhauling of it, I found that there were forty doubloons, ten 
dollars, and some smaller money in it! My surprise was so great that 
my young friend perceived it, and I told him the whole truth of it, how 
I came by it. My friend advised me to keep it quiet, and say nothing 
about it; I told him I would. And now it came into my thoughts that 
the money might be serviceable to me, to keep me from going to prison; 
and I spoke to my young friend about it, and he went down and spoke 
to the old Spaniard about it, who came up to me directly, and he told 
the American mate to tell me to make myself quite easy about that; for 
he had been to the prison to hear if he could find out that I had been 
missing, and, when I had been missed, that they supposed that I had 
been drowned; so he said, “ It will be your own fault if you go to 
prison.” 

You may depend I was very glad to hear what he said, and I offered 
the old man a doubloon for the kindness he had shown me, which he at 
first refused; but, after a good deal of persuading, he took it for to pay 
the doctor. And now this affair being settled, I rested myself quite 
contented till it pleased the Almighty to restore to me the use of my leg 
and arm, which got quite well in about a month’s time; and me and the 
American mate got quite friendly together; and, their ship being nearly 
ready for sea, he persuaded me to join the ship that he belonged to, for 
they were several hands short, and they would be obliged to ship 
Spaniards, without they could get any of my former shipmates to run 
away out of prison and join their ship; so I agreed to go along with 
him, and I joined the “Matilda,” of Boston, on the 1st day of Decem¬ 
ber, 1805. On leaving my old friend, the Spaniard, who had been so 
kind to me. I made him a present of five Spanish doubloons, which he 
accepted; and l parted from him with a sorrowful heart. 

When I came on board of the “Matilda,” I was quite surprised to 
find four of my old shipmates there before me. They had made their 
escape out of prison through the assistance of some good Spaniards, and 
had got on board there before me. But you may depend that their sur¬ 
prise was great to see me, for I was believed, by every one, to be 
drowned; but we soon reconciled ourselves; and by the 4th day of 
December we were out at sea, clear of them all; and our ship, the 
“Matilda,” was bound to Boston, in America, where we arrived the 25th 
day of January, 1806. I liked my ship so well, that I agreed to go along 
with them another voyage; and we sailed from Boston in the beginning 
of March; and we went back to Cadiz again, and I had the pleasure of 
seeing my old friend, the Spaniard, again, who was well and hearty. 

And now I must tell my readers that I staid in the “Matilda,” of 
Boston, till, in a voyage from Boston to London, in the beginning of the 
year 1807, I was pressed out of her, while lying at the Big Nore; and I 
was taken on board of the “Namur,” guard-ship at Sheerness, and from 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


301 

there I was drafted on board of the “ Spitfire,” sloop-of-war. Although 
I was on the books as a foreigner, I could not get clear; so I wrote up 
to my old landlord, Mr. Bland, to hear if I could learn anything of my 
wife; and I asked him if he would be kind enough to come down to me 
and see me, and bring my wife along with him. I sent this letter away 
on Friday, and on Sunday morning Mr. Bland came on board of the 
“ Spitfire ” to see me. When we got down below, I asked him how my 
wife was; and then I heard that my wife was dead; that she died the 
day after I was pressed; that through the fright she got, she was taken 
in labor, and she died in childbed, but that the child lived, and was 
grown a fine boy, and that he would be five years old if he lived till 
July; and he told me that he had never received only one letter from 
me, and that was the one I had sent from the “ Albion,” before I sailed 
in her; and Mr. Bland told me that he and his wife had taken care of 
everything; that after my wife was buried, and they got a nurse for the 
child, they sold everything that I had in the house; and knowing that I 
had money in Mr. Scovel’s hands, he went to him and told him all about 
it; and Mr. Scovel had allowed him seven shillings a week for to take 
care of the child and pay the nurse; and he showed me the account of 
the expenses he had been at, and I found that it amounted to nearly 
ninety-five pounds; so Mr. Scovel was still a debtor to me. 

After we had settled all our accounts, I gave Mr. Bland thirty doub¬ 
loons, and about one hundred and twenty Spanish dollars, and told him 
to take them to Mr. Scovel, to put to the rest of my stock; and I told 
him to be careful of my boy, and whatever he wanted, to get money 
from Mr. Scovel, and get it for him; and I gave him two doubloons— 
one for himself, and the other for his wife; and I returned him my kind 
thanks for the trouble he had been at on my account. And after Mr. 
Bland was gone, I sat down and had a good cry for the loss of my wife; 
and I returned my sincere thanks to God for his great mercy to me for 
raising up friends to look after my child. And now this business being 
settled, I went on deck to my work, and the next day we sailed for to 
join a convoy in Yarmouth Roads, and from there we went to Gottenburg, 
where we arrived in May. 

Nothing particular happened to me while in the u Spitfire,” sloop-of- 
war, not till the 1st of August, 1810, when an accident happened to me. 
We were cruising off the coast of Norway, and the weather being rather 
thick and hazy, for it had been blowing strong all night, and in the morn¬ 
ing, sending our topgallant yards up, a strange sail was reported from 
the mast-head on the lee-beam; and the hands being turned up to make 
sail, and I being at the mast-head, binding the topgallant yard; but not 
getting our jewel-blocks on the yard before we were ordered to loose the 
sail, and was obliged to put them on after the sail was set; and I being 
out on the starboard foretop-gallant yardarm, and the slack of the lifts 
not being taken down, the topgallant halyards carried away, and the 
slack of the lifts caught me under my rump, and hove me right over the 
yard; but, as luck would have it, I caught right across the topgallant 
bowline, and it being slack, I lowered myself down, till I got hold of the 
leech of the topsail, just before the ship was luffed to the wind. I men¬ 
tion this to show the wonderful mercy and care of God Almighty over us 
poor mortals; for if I had fell down on deck, I must have been killed 
upon the spot; but I got safe down on deck without any hurt, and I got 
the name of the “Flying Dutchman” among my shipmates. During 
our cruise off the coast of Norway, we took several prizes, and our 


302 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


time passed away merrily enough till the year 1812, when the American 
war broke out; and the “ President,” American frigate, Commodore 
Rogers, was off the North Cape, when our ship, the “ Spitfire,” sloop- 
of-war, the “ Alexander,” thirty-two-gun frigate, and the “ Bonne Citoy- 
enne,” corvette, were sent off the North Cape to protect our trade, and 
to see if we could see anything of him. 

We arrived off the Cape in the latter part of May, and we found it 
very cold there; and we kept cruising there till the 10th of June, when, 
about four o’clock in the afternoon, the weather clearing up, we saw the 
American frigate, and a large schooner along with her: she was about 
five or six miles dead to leeward of us, and we made all sail in chase. 
Now our ship would outsail the other two ships, but our commander 
would not allow us to go along side of her, for she was too heavy a ship 
for us to engage; so we chased her till the 14th of June, when both she 
and us got stuck among the ice; we had chased her as far as eighty- 
three degrees of north latitude. Now at this time of the year, in this 
part of the world, there is scarcely any night, but all daylight. We 
stuck fast among the ice till the 17th day of June, when the ice broke 
up; but the “ President” getting clear of it before we did, he made the 
best of his way to the southward; and before we got clear, we could see 
nothing of him, nor any other ship; for the corvette had been sent after 
the schooner, and the “Alexander” frigate had been drifted oft' the ice 
by strong currents, and we did not fall in with the “ Alexander ” till the 
21st of June, and then we kept cruising off the North Cape again. 

Now the “President” frigate had taken a great many of our Arch¬ 
angel traders, and a good many Russian vessels, before we came on the 
coast, and taken them into a place called Colla, which is a large bay, 
with very good anchorage, and a very good harbor. And when she got 
them in there, they took the best what they wanted out of the ships, and 
then set fire to them; and they took one of our Greenland ships, belong¬ 
ing to Hull, and had put all the English prisoners on board of her, and 
the Russians they had set ashore at Colla, a small town about twenty 
miles up the river; so the Russians were very much embittered against 
the Americans. I mention this because it interferes with my story. 
We and the frigate kept cruising about the North Cape till the latter part 
of July; and our water getting very short, we put into Colla, for to 
water, and to get some wood; and our cask and people being sent on 
shore, we sent them their provisions on shore every day. 

Now the second day that we lay off Colla, being the 1st day of 
August, 1812,1 was ordered to go into the boat; and our captain, doctor 
and purser went ashore to go a shooting. We landed the captain and 
the rest of the officers on an island, about a quarter of a mile from 
where our people were at work; and our captain gave me orders to land 
the provisions, and then come back for them to take them on board to 
dinner: and accordingly we went, and I delivered what provisions I had 
to the officer in charge of the working party; and telling him the orders 
that I had received from the captain, he sent me away to obey them; and 
we tried to go back the same way we came, but we could not, for the 
tide run so strong that we could not fetch round the island where our 
captain was, so we tried to go round the other way; but all our trying 
was in vain, for the more we pulled, the further we got away from the 
island; and having no grabbling or anchor in the boat, we resolved to g<f 
along side of some of the small vessels which were lying there, to hold 
on till the tide was down, which we did; and the people on board of 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


303 

them seemed to be glad to receive us. Now these vessels were fishing- 
vessels, seemingly waiting for the tide to slack before they could go to 
sea; and the one we got on board of hailed another that lay pretty close 
to us, but we could not understand a single word they said, and we had 
no suspicion that they were talking about us. 

So we laid ourselves down quite unconcerned, for the weather was 
warm, and we being rather tired after our long pull; and we might have 
laid down about two hours, for I could not sleep sound, for I knew that 
our captain would be very angry for not fetching him to go on board to 
his dinner. But what was my surprise, on getting up, to see two large 
boats, with about twenty men in each, close to us. And, corning along 
side, they took us out of our boat, and tied us back to back, and beat us 
unmercifully, and called us American spies, for they took us and our 
ships to be Americans; and they had such a spite against the Americans 
for burning their ships, that they would not hearken to anything that we 
had to say if they could have understood us. 

So after they were tired of beating and ill-using us, which they did in 
a cruel manner—for they were a cowardly set of men, for a coward is 
always cruel when he gets the upper hand of you;—so, after they were 
tired beating of us, they took our boat in tow, and took us up to Colla, 
the name of a small town in Russian Lapland; and when we got there, 
we were put into prison, and they gave us some black bread to eat, and 
some water to drink, and the next day they put irons on us, and joined 
two and two together; we had a shackle round one of our legs, and 
another on our hands, and so we were chained together; and then they 
sent a sergeant and eight soldiers as a guard along with us to march us 
to Archangel, which was about one thousand two hundred miles distant. 
And so we started on our travel in a very helpless condition. Our first 
fortnight travel was the worst, for we traveled through nothing but woods; 
and when our stock of black bread got low, they used to feed us upon 
the bark of trees; for every fir-tree has three different barks or rinds 
upon it, and the middle rind, when roasted by the fire, makes a good 
substitute for bread. But this was not the worst misfortune we had to 
deal with, for, having irons on our legs and arms, we could not pull oui 
clothes off. 

And so we traveled on till we got clear of the woods, and we got in 
among what they called their towns; and here we got a good deal better 
used, and our traveling was a good deal better, for we used to get horses 
from place to place; and they tied the two horses’ heads together, and 
when we were mounted on them, chained together as we were, our poor 
horses had to keep regular step together, or else we were likely to be 
hauled off our horses, which was very painful to our legs. And some¬ 
times we traveled in boats for whole days together; and the nearer we 
got to Archangel our food became a good deal better, for they used some¬ 
times to give us some milk, along with our bread, in the room of water; 
and in this way we kept on traveling till the beginning of September, 
when we arrived in Archangel, where we were put into prison. 

We had been in Archangel prison two or three days, when we found 
out by the few words of Russian that we had picked up, that we were 
going to be sent to Siberia along with some more prisoners. And now we 
thought our fate very hard to be transported without having a trial; but it 
happened otherwise. For one morning, when I was out in the prison-yard, 
I heard two gentlemen talking together in German, and me understanding 
a little of the German tongue, I made bold to speak to one of them as well 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


304 

as I could. I told him what we were, and what ship we belonged to. Now 
this gentleman that I spoke to happened to be one of the English consul’s 
clerks; and he soon spoke to me in good English,and told me that he would 
speak to the consul about us; and he was kind enough to put his hand in 
his pocket and give me a silver ruble, and away he went. And I went 
to acquaint my shipmates of the news that I had to tell them; and you 
may depend they were very glad to hear the news, especially when I 
showed them the silver ruble that the gentleman had been kind enough 
to give me. And I went and bought something to eat with part of the 
money; for you may depend we were kept pretty short of provisions; 
and after we had eaten our bellies full, we all returned thanks to God 
for his kindness toward us, and waited with patience till about half past 
ten o’clock, when the turnkey came in and called us, and told us that 
we were wanted. 

When we came into the room where the gentleman was that I had 
spoken to the day before, he told me that the consul would be there 
directly; and, when the consul came, he spoke to us, and asked us what 
ships belonging to England were stationed off the North Cape, and how 
we came to leave our ship. We told him; and he spoke to the governor, 
and the next morning we got our discharge from the prison. Now, in the 
state that we were in, we were not fit to go into a clean house, or among 
clean people; so the consul put us into an outhouse that he had, and 
gave us some clean straw to lie on, and two duck frocks and trowsers 
apiece, for our old clothes were fairly worn out. And he used to send 
us our provision every day from his own house; and in a week’s time 
we were clear of all vermin, and as clean as anybody need to be. And 
the English merchants and their ladies who resided at Archangel, when 
they came to know how we had been served by the Russians, made a 
subscription for us, and bought us many things that we stood in need of. 

We stopped with our good consul till the latter end of September, 
when the “ Oberon,” an English gun-brig, arrived at Archangel, to take 
a convoy home to England; and the captain of her, Captain Young, a 
very good man, heard about us, and seeing the state that we were in— 
for the places that the vermin had eaten into us were not quite healed 
up—he told us that he would take us to England. And on the first day 
of October we were sent on board of the “ Oberon,” and the captain 
and officers behaved very kindly to us; and we sailed from Archangel 
on the 4th day of October, and on the 17th of October, when nearly 
off the North Cape, we fell in with our ship, the “ Spitfire,” and the 
“Alexander” frigate. 

We were sent on board of our ship; and, to our great surprise, we were 
put in irons. So Captain Young stated to our captain the state he found 
us in at Archangel, and the punishment that we had received from the 
Russians. But our captain swore that we intended to run away from 
the ship, and we were kept in irons till we arrived at Leith Roads, when 
orders came on board to let us out of irons; for Admiral Young had his 
flag at Leith Roads, and his son, the captain of the “ Oberon,” had 
acquainted his father with the state he had found us in at Archangel. 
And so now we thought it was all over with this affair; but it was not so, 
for our ship received orders to go round to Portsmouth to be refitted; 
and in going round from Leith, as soon as we left the Downs—for we 
were then under another admiral—our captain turned the hands up, and 
gave me and a man, named Andrew Paddon, three dozen lashes apiece; 
for he swore that we two had been ringleaders, and that we intended 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


305 

to run away from the ship. The other two men he forgave: and thus 
this affair ended. 

Now when we arrived at Portsmouth, we refitted our ship, and we 
were sent to cruise off Cherbourg along with some men-of-war. On 
the 10th day of February, 1813, it being a fine morning, we chased a 
French lugger close into the land, and the wind dying away, and what 
there was coming from the northward, the lugger got clear of us; and 
we being close in shore, and standing away to the westward, I happened 
to be at the mast-head to look out. It was about half past ten o’clock in 
the forenoon, and I was sitting on the maintop-gallant yard, when a 
little battery, which we had not seen before, opened fire upon us ? and 
the second or third shot they fired carried away our maintop-gallant 
mast; and me sitting on the maintop-gallant yard, I had a very clumsy 
fall; but our mainsail being hauled up, I had the good fortune to fall 
into the belly of the mainsail, where after some time lying there sense¬ 
less—for I must have struck against the mainyard in my fall, for I was 
bleeding a good deal—when there were some hands sent to help me out 
of the mainsail; and when I got on deck, I was obliged to be sent to 
the doctor, when I soon got well. And by the time that our ship came 
out to Spithead again, and was ready for sea, we were sent on board of her 
again, and we hoisted the convoy signal for the coast of Africa; and, on 
the 20th of April, 1813, we sailed from Spithead with about three 
hundred sail of ships, all under different convoys. 

We staid on the coast till the beginning of May, 1814, when we fell 
in with an English brig from London, who brought us the news of the 
peace, and of Bonaparte giving himself up; and the brig brought us 
some newspapers, and some letters for the captain and officers, for she 
had been to Sierra Leone. You may depend we were all very glad to 
hear of the news of peace; and the next morning we went to sea, and 
shaped our course for Portsmouth, where we arrived on the 20th of July. 
Now when we got home, an order was issued from the admiralty, that 
all men that had served eleven years, and all foreigners, were to be dis¬ 
charged. Now I being entered as a foreigner on the ship’s books, 1 
claimed my discharge; and I got my discharge from the service on the 
2d of August, 1814; and I went to Portsmouth Dockyard to get my pay, 
and as soon as I got it, I went to the coach-office and booked myself 
for London. 

By six o’clock that evening I was on my journey, and I arrived safe 
by seven o’clock in the morning, after being away from London a little 
better than twelve years. I was well and hearty after all my trials and 
crosses; and, as soon as I got some breakfast,.I went to Vine Yard to 
see Mr. Bland; but, when I got there, Mr. Bland was not at home, but 
Mrs. Bland was. I soon told her who I was, and asked her where my 
boy was. She told me that the boy was very well, and that he was at 
school; but she soon sent for him. And I told her not to tell him who I 
was, for I wanted to surprise him myself. At last, when he came into 
the room where I was, I could see a good deal of his mother’s face in 
him, and it was not long before I had him in my arms, for I could not 
keep myself from him; and the poor boy, when he was told that I was 
his father, fell a crying; but he still crept close to me, and we soon all 
got reconciled together. And, when Mr. Bland came in, we passed the 
day away in talking over past affairs; and the next day me and Mr. 
Bland settled our accounts together, and I went to Mr. Scovel. I found 
that I still had better than a hundred pounds in his hands; and, after all 
20 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


306 

that was settled, I thanked Mr. Scovel for the kindness that he had 
shown me, and I asked his advice what I had best do. He told me that 
I had best not enter into any sort of business at present, till I saw how 
things would turn out, for the peace had made a great stagnation in 
trade; but, if I liked, I might go to work at any of his wharves, and he 
would allow me twenty-five shillings a week, and I agreed with him. 

In the middle of May I fell in with an old shipmate of mine, that had 
been a master’s mate along with me in the “ Spitfire,” and he was 
master of a new bark, called the “X. Y. Z.,” and he was bound to 
Riga, and he wanted a second mate; and when I told him my circum¬ 
stances, he persuaded me to go along with him. So I went. We had 
a very fine passage across the North Sea, and we arrived at Riga the 
10th of July; and, as soon as our cargo was discharged, we commenced 
taking in our cargo for London. 

On the 5th of September, it being Sunday morning, the breeze having 
nearly died away to a calm, the captain ordered me to call the mate; for 
he said that he had smelled fire. We all smelled it, too. I advised the 
captain that the best thing we could do was to get the boats out before 
we opened any of our hatches. Accordingly we.turned the hands up, 
and got the boats out, and put oars and sails in them, and then we took 
one hatch off; but no sooner had we done this, but a good deal of smoke 
came up the hatchway. We roused some of the bales of flax on deck, 
for we were laden with flax, hemp and tallow; and we mustered all 
buckets, and began to heave water down the place where the smoke 
came from. And our mate thinking that if the after hatchway was 
open, he would be able to heave some water down there; but no sooner 
were the after hatches taken off, but the flames struck up the after part, 
and in a very few minutes our main rigging was in a blaze. And now 
all chance of saving the ship was over, for the fire spread rapidly. The 
middle part of the ship being on fire, those that were aft could not get 
forward, and those that were forward could not get aft; so we found it 
a great blessing that we got our boats out. So all hands got into the 
boats, and we had a chance to save some of our clothes, and some pro¬ 
vision and water, which we put into the long-boat. Now there were 
fifteen of us, men and boys altogether, and we divided ourselves in the 
three boats—that is, the long-boat, pinnace, and jolly-boat; and we lay 
by the ship till she was burnt to the water’s edge. 

When the accident happened to us, we could see an island in the 
East Sea that belongs to the Danes, for which we pulled, taking the 
boats in too. But the people on the island seeing the fire at sea, the 
governor of the island sent two boats to our assistance, which we met 
about half way from our ship to the shore, and they very kindly offered 
us any assistance in their power; but we thanked them kindly, and 
pulled on shore in company, where we arrived about eight o’clock in the 
evening, and there was no one hurt. In two days we were sent in a 
Danish vessel to Copenhagen, where I staid till the 20th of September, 
when I shipped in a brig, called the “Fame,” and arrived in London 
on the 24th day of November. I found my boy and Mr. and Mrs. Bland 
well and hearty; and my boy made very good progress in his learning, 
and I put him apprentice to a sail-maker. 

Mr. Scovel, being connected with a great many country bankers, and 
a great many of them breaking, Mr. Scovel was obliged to stop payment, 
and I got a shilling in the pound for the little money he had of mine. 
But my son was bound apprentice to Mr. Mellish for seven years, and 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


307 

Mr. Mellish told me, when I told him of my misfortune, to make myself 
quite easy about him; that he had taken a great liking to the boy, and, 
if he behaved himself, he would be as good as a father to him; and, as 
Mr. Mellish had a great many South-Seamen, and I wanted to make a 
long voyage, I had best join one of his ships; and there being a ship 
of his, called the “ Policy,” now fitted out, if I liked, he would speak 
to the captain of her for me; and I, being tired of these short voyages, 
agreed with the captain. When the captain was gone, he called me to 
him, and said to me, “ Upon account of your late misfortune, losing 
nearly all, I make you a present of this for to fit you out for the voyage;” 
and he gave me two five-pound notes. I thanked him very kindly. 

On the 20th of June, 1816, we sailed from Gravesend, and we had 
a very good passage, and we got round Cape Horn by the beginning of 
October, and we soon had the pleasure of getting into the Pacific Ocean. 

On the 20th of May, 1817, we saw the spout of a fish, about four 
o’clock in the afternoon, and there being very little wind, we lowered 
our boat, got up to her, and made fast to her. She run us about five 
or six miles, when she hove to, and we soon killed her; but by the time 
that she was dead, and we got her in tow, it was past sunset, and we 
could scarcely see our ship; but we pulled toward her as fast as we 
could, and the ship, the last time we saw her, was coming toward us; 
and when it got dark, we hoisted our lantern at our mast-head, so that 
the ship might see us. We kept pulling away till about twelve o’clock 
at night, when our candle went out, and being all very tired, the mate 
ordered us to lay our oars in, and rest ourselves a bit, and told all hands 
to look out sharp, to see if they could see anything of the ship; but we 
could not see anything of her. 

So, after having a small drop of rum and water, and a bit of biscuit, 
we got our oars out again, and pulled in the direction where we had 
seen the ship last; for we could still see a large rock, called Rodondo, 
and we steered for it, and we kept pulling till daylight; and then, to 
our great misfortune, we could not see anything of the ship, and we 
were a long way drifted from Rodondo. And we, finding that our pull¬ 
ing was of little use, laid our oars in, and we had a consultation what 
was best for us to do; and after different opinions, we agreed that, as 
there was a little breeze of wind, we should set our sail, and stand to 
the northward, in hopes to fall in with some ship. For when we started 
from our own ship, there were six of us in the boat, and all the pro¬ 
visions we had was a breaker of water, which held about six gallons, 
and about a dozen biscuits, and about a pint of rum, and as we had not 
been very careful of it, the first night we had very little of it left. So 
we were not in a very fit state to pull, and we thought by sailing we 
might have a chance of falling in with some ship. And now we had a 
hard chance before us, in an open boat, in the great Pacific Ocean, and 
nearly under the equator, with the sun hot enough to roast us, and 
scarcely any water to drink, and very little to eat; but it was of no use 
to fret about it, and we were obliged to make ourselves content, and 
pray to God to release us out of our calamity. 

We staid in this way in the boat for three days, when we had the 
last cup of water; and you may depend that we were all hungry 
enough, and some of our men hauled up to the whale, and cut some 
of his tail off, and broiled it in the sun, and ate it. And I and the mate 
tried to persuade them from doing it, but they took no notice of it; and 
the consequence was, that it made them sick, and caused them to heave* 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


308 

up what little substance they had on their stomachs. And the next day 
morning, being the fourth day, we found one of our boat mates lying 
dead in the boat; and after we said a few prayers over him, we com¬ 
mitted his body to the deep with a sorrowful heart; for we were all very 
weak by this time. And that same day, about four o’clock, another of 
our boat mates was taken raving mad, and after ill-using himself a good 
deal, he jumped overboard, and the sharks soon finished him. 

Now there were only four of us left, and we suffered a good deal 
with thirst. I can’t say I was very hungry, but I was terribly dry; and 
the next morning, being the fifth day, we found another of our boat 
mates dead. It was as much as the three of us could do to heave him 
overboard, for we were so weak we could not stand upon our feet; but 
after a good deal of trouble, we got him out of the boat. And after 
that, we turned to and licked the dew off the oars and the boat, to 
quench our thirst; and so we passed away the fifth day. And some 
time during the night our other comrade died; we heard him groan, but 
we could not help him. And when daylight came, the next morning, 
we saw a ship quite close to us, but both me and my partner were so 
weak that we could not get up to show ourselves; but I made shift to 
hold one of the boat’s flags up. The ship, when she came close to us, 
hove to, and lowered a boat down, and towed us along side of the ship; 
but which way we got on board of her I can’t tell. 

When I came to myself, I found that I was on board of a whaler, 
belonging to London, and that my poor partner, the mate of our ship, 
had died about four hours after he got on board of her, and the doctor 
told me that there was no fear of me if the fever only kept off. I found 
myself very weak, and I could not stand upon my legs. Now the four 
men that died in the boat were the four men that ate of the whale that 
we were towing off. The ship that I got on board of was called the 
“ Neptune,” bound home, and I was obliged to go home in her. 

We arrived safe at Gravesend the 24th day of September, after being 
away two years and four months. After we got the ship safe into the 
docks, I went to Mr. Mellish’s to see my son; but what was my surprise 
to find that my son had gone to sea, and that Mr. Bland was dead, and 
that his widow had gone into the country to live along with her friends. 
Mr. Mellish told me that my son, after hearing of my misfortune, had 
been continually teasing him to let him go to sea in one of his ships, 
for he said he wanted to look for his father; and, having a ship ready 
to sail, he at last consented to let him go, and he sailed in a ship called 
the “ Seringapatam,” and was gone from England about five months. 
And Mr. Mellish told me that he had been a very good lad, and that he 
was very sorry to lose him from his sail-loft. And now, after our oil was 
sold, I received my wages, which amounted to ninety-three pounds, for 
the captain and Mr. Mellish were kind enough to pay me for the whole 
time that I hrid been away from the ship. In a South-Seaman the men 
have no monthly wages, but go by the shares, and they got a good many 
fish during the time I had been away. And now, having no acquaintance 
in London, I intended to go in the first ship that was bound to the South 
.Seas, to look after my son. 

Mr. Mellish had a ship fitting out, called the “ Spring Grove,” and 1 
agreed to go as second mate; and we sailed from Gravesend on the 3d 
of November, 1818, and had a very good passage to James’ Island. 
Our passage lay round the south-west point of the island, where there 
lies a dangerous reef, called the Papases. By going inside of the reef, 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


309 

you can fetch your anchorage without making a tack. Now on the 
evening of the 2d of February, it being a fine night, our captain 
intended to go inside of the reef. I reasoned against it as much as I 
could, but it was of no use, for the mate said he had been through the 
passage a dozen times, and he could take the ship through it; for he 
said if we went outside of the reef, it would take us a whole day to 
work up to our anchorage; and accordingly we went. I had the first 
watch on deck, which is from eight o’clock till twelve at night; but the 
captain being on deck all my watch, everything went according to his 
direction. 

At twelve o’clock the male came up and took charge from me, and I 
went below to my cabin, and I soon went to sleep; but I had not laid 
long, when I was awoke by the ship striking upon the rocks. I jumped 
up, and put on my trowsers and my old jacket, and on deck I went; but 
when I got there, the sea was making a clean breach right over the ship. 
And as soon as I got clear of the companion hatch, a cross sea took me 
and hove me against the larboard bulwarks, and carried me, bulwarks 
and all, away overboard; and I tried to swim a bit, but I still kept hold 
of the piece of bulwark, till another tremendous sea took me and hove 
me on shore. But the blow that I received knocked me senseless, and 
there I lay till about seven or eight o’clock next morning, when I came 
to myself, and I found our dog Nero standing along side of me, licking 
my wounds; for my head was cut, and my left side, where I had been 
hove against the rocks. 

When I got up, which I could scarcely do, I looked round to see if I 
could see anything of the ship, or any of my shipmates; but I could see 
nothing, only the dog, and he kept running to a short distance from me, 
and kept barking at something, and then came back to me again—as 
much as to say, “ come here and look.” And at last I went to see what 
it was, though I had a good deal of trouble to get there: and when I 
got there, I found one of my shipmates lying among the rocks, and you 
may depend I was glad to see it; but when I tried to get him up, I found 
he was quite dead, for his head was cut all to pieces. The man that I 
found was our carpenter, and his name was James Roberts. 

Now when I found that he was quite dead, I sat down beside him, 
and I cried like a child, for I was in great hopes that I should have had 
a partner in my misfortune; for I could see nothing but starvation before 
me, and 1 had a great mind to lie down along side of my shipmate and 
die; but the dog would not let me, for he kept pulling me by the trowsers 
for to get up; and the sun was very powerful and hot; so up 1 got to 
look for a place to shelter myself, and at last I found one under some 
trees, where I sat down to rest myself; but I had not sat there long, 
before I heard my dog barking again very loud, and I got up in hopes 
of seeing some one alive beside myself, but 1 could not see anybody; 
and when I came to my dog, I saw that he had found a land tortoise, 
which I knew was very good eating, but I had no fire to cook it by; but 
I knew that the land tortoises have three bladders in them—one full of 
blood, and two full of water; and, as I was very dry, I killed the 
tortoise, for I had my knife about me, the only thing then, excepting the 
clothes I had on, that I had saved from the wreck; and I took one of the 
bladders of water out of the tortoise, and I drank it, and I found it very 
good, and I gave the one full of blood to my dog; and I ate some of the 
lean of the tortoise, and cut it in thin slices, and beat it, and spread it 
out in the sun to dry for myself to eat, and the rest I gave to my dog; 


310 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


and the other bladder of water I buried in the sand, close to the trees 
where I had fixed my present habitation. And after I had eaten, and 
drank my water, I felt myself a good deal better, and I knelt down to 
thank the Almighty Giver of all good for his wonderful mercy to me, to 
send me food in the wilderness that I was in. 

My prayer, all alone on the solitary island, made me feel a good deal 
easier ; and I had strength to bury my comrade. I then made my bed, 
and laid myself down, with my dog along side of me, and soon fell asleep, 
and I slept very soundly till the next morning. 

After I awoke, I went to the beach to see if I could find anything washed 
on shore from the ship, though I found my side and my head very sore; 
but I could find nothing that had been washed on shore. And next thing 
I looked for was to see if I could find anything like a flint; for my chief 
object was to try to get a fire, for then I should be able to cook my meat; 
for I had found, in my poor shipmate’s pockets, a knife and a gimlet, and 
a few nails, and some chalk; and I tried my knife and his knife on all the 
stones that looked like flint-stones, to try to strike fire; but I could not find 
any that would do, so the only thing that I had to do was to try to get 
two pieces of touch-wood, and rub them together; but now I had nothing 
but two pocket-knives, but I thought that, with God’s help, I should be 
able to manage it. And I went back to my grove, where I had slept the 
night before, to get something to eat; but not coming back the same 
way that I went, I found some sorrel, which has a small leaf, and a 
big stem, which is a capital thing to quench your thirsty for the stem 
is full of moisture, of a sourish taste, and it is a very good substitute 
for water. 

At finding this prize. I returned my hearty thanks to God for sending 
me in the way to find it. Although the water that I got out of the 
tortoise’s bladder was very good, still the sorrel and it made it more 
pleasant; and, after I and my dog had our breakfast, we went to look 
for some touch-wood, which, thanks be to God, I found, after a good 
deal of trouble. And it cost me nearly three month’s trouble and hard 
work before I got a fire, which I did by rubbing the two pieces of wood 
together; and during this time I lived nearly as I have mentioned, only 
that I tried several more herbs; and I found a sort of asparagus, which 
l found contained a good deal of moisture, which was a great help to 
me; and I tried a good many different barks of trees to make something 
as a substitute for bread; and, at last, after trying a good many, I found 
some that, after being baked in the sun, did very well; so, thanks be to 
God, I got on better and better every day. 

Now I must tell you the way I kept an account of my time:—I dug 
two holes in the earth, and I got thirty small stones, and the day that J 
was cast away upon the island being the 3d day of February, I counted 
from that time, and put a stone into the empty hole every day, till the 
thirty stones were all gone; and then, with my knife, I cut a great notch 
on a tree that stood close by; so, by these means, I could tell how many 
days I had been on the island. And now, after I got a fire, I used to 
cook my meat, and make myself as comfortable as my circumstances 
would allow me to be. But you might, perhaps, wish to know what I 
did for a pot or a frying-pan?—why, I used the top shell of the tortoise 
for a pot, and the under shell for a frying-pan. And I took great care 
that my fire should not go out, for there was plenty of cork or match- 
wood on the island; and I knew, by former trials, that the wood would 
keep alight while there was a bit of it left, but it would never come to a 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 3H 

blaze; and, to prevent my fire from going out, I always had two or three 
pieces alight. 

Being busy the chief part of the time that I had been on the island in 
making a fire, I had scarcely gone any distance from the beach, and 
from my grove. I resolved now to go into the interior of the island, 
and, with this intent, I lighted a couple of large pieces of match-wood, 
that I knew would last two or three days, and away I and my dog started 
for the middle part of the island; and we traveled on a good while, when 
my dog fell a barking at something; and, to my great surprise, what 
should it be but two wild goats, that had been laying down, when the 
dog came close to them. Now my seeing these goats, put a desire into 
my head, that I should like to get some of them; for I thought that I 
might get some goat’s milk, which would be a great addition to me. 

I began to get tired of walking, and I went and got a small tortoise, 
and killed him; and I found plenty of sorrel here, so I gave my dog 
something to eat and to drink. I had some myself; for I had taken care 
to bring a piece of match-wood along with me, and there being plenty 
of dry brushwood, I soon made a fire, and roasted my meat; and after 
I had my dinner, and returned thanks to God, I and my dog went on our 
travels again; and we traveled a good distance, and we saw plenty more 
goats. And by tracing the goats, I found a small spring of water, and 
you may depend that I shall never forget how sweet the first drop of 
water tasted, that I had; and after having a good drink, I returned 
thanks to the Almighty for his wonderful mercy to me. And now, as 
it was beginning to be late, I resolved to stop where I was for the night; 
so, on that account, 1 began to look out for a place to shelter from the 
dew; and when I had found one, I gathered some leaves and some moss, 
and made myself a bed. 

As it was early yet, I looked round to see what sort of place I had 
got to; but I soon found that I had nearly got to the north-east part of 
the island, for I had not walked far from my new habitation, when I 
could see the sea: and finding the place so convenient to the sea, and 
more cool than the lee-side of the island, I resolved to shift my habita¬ 
tion round to this part of the island; and, with this intention, I went to 
my new lodging; and after I had some supper, and given some to my 
dog, and returned my sincere thanks to God for the many blessings he 
had showered down upon me, I laid myself down to sleep; but I could 
not sleep for a long time, for my thoughts were occupied how I should 
be able to make myself master of some of the goats that I had seen. 
At length I came to the resolution to make myself a bow and some 
arrows; and I thought that if I was able to wound a goat, my dog would 
be able to catch him. And, with this thought, I went to sleep, and I 
slept very soundly till the next morning, when, after returning my thanks 
to God for preserving me during the night, I made a fire, and cooked 
myself some breakfast; and after I and my dog had done, we traveled 
on to my old habitation, and soon packed up my all. 

When I counted my stones, I found that I had been one hundred and 
fifteen days on the island. And away I and my dog went, back to my 
new lodgings; and we got back before sunset, for we had taken a nearer 
road than we did the first day. And after I had put all my store in my 
new house, I went to bed, for I was tired; and the first thing I did, next 
morning, was to regulate my time-keeper, in digging two more holes, 
and put my stones in them, and cutting my notches in a tree that stood 
close by. And now I began to work at my bow and arrows; for that 


312 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


purpose I killed a large tortoise, to get his gut to make a string for my 
bow; and after getting a piece of wood, fit for a bow, I made it; and I 
found my gimlet that I found in my poor shipmate’s trowsers’ pocket 
very handy. And after my bow was done, I went to work to make the 
arrow, and I finished my weapon in three days, which I don’t think 
very long, considering I had nothing but my knife to do it with, and I 
had everything to look for before I could use it. 

I was soon repaid for my trouble; for the fourth day that I was out 
with my bow and arrow, and my dog, I wounded an old she-goat, and 
my dog soon caught it; and as he and I were bringing the goat home, I 
found that two young ones followed the old one; and as the old goat 
was only wounded in the leg, I tied her up outside my grove; and I had 
the pleasure of seeing them come to the old one, and sucking her. 
After they were tired of sucking, they laid down beside the old dam. 

My next trouble was to make a place to keep my goats in; and I 
turned to, and fenced a piece of ground all round, which cost me a good 
deal of trouble; but I completed a piece in four days, and I put my 
goats into it: and now, keeping the young ones by themselves, I had 
some milk to drink, which was a great help to me; and I returned the 
Almighty God thanks for his wonderful mercy to me. And now that I 
saw I had made a good job of the fence, that I had made for my goats, 
I intended to make a sort of fence round my dwelling-place, and to try 
to cover it more from the sun, for rain is scarcely ever known in these 
islands, for I had been here now one hundred and eighty-four days, and 
I had no rain all that time; so to work I went, and finished my job in 
about thirty days, and I found myself a good deal more comfortable than 
I was before. 

I had not long finished my job, when one night, which I believed to 
be nearly the latter end of September, it came on to blow and rain as if 
heaven and earth were coming together, and very heavy lightning and 
thunder along with it. It was a night such as I had not experienced 
since I had been on the island, and I thanked the Lord Almighty for 
putting it into my head to put my house to rights, in order to shelter mo 
from the weather. But about midnight, as near as I could guess, the 
roof, and everything that I had put on my house, was blown off, and I 
was exposed to the open air. The only thing that I was fretting about 
was, that the rain would put my fire out, which I had been at so much 
trouble in getting; but about four or five o’clock next morning, the rain 
ceased, and the wind died away, and by sunrise it was quite a fine 
morning. And, thanks be to God, my fire was not gone out; but on 
looking round me, to see the destruction which the wind and lightning 
had caused, and still I was saved among the living to praise the Lord, 
which I did, I hope, with a true heart, I had the misfortune to find that 
one of my young goats had been killed by lightning, for he was black 
and blue all over; my house was much damaged, and my bed soaking 
with rain. 

Repairing my house and bed cost me a good deal of trouble and time, 
for I had never been properly well since the night the hurricane swept 
over the island, and I found myself getting worse every day. My legs 
began to swell very much, so that I was scarcely able to go to the spring 
to fetch my water, or able to catch a tortoise; but my dog, my only com¬ 
panion, used to fetch them to me. But at last I got that bad, that I was 
not able to get up out of my bed-place, and I nearly gave myself up 
for lost. 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


313 


I had lain in this state two or three days, when one day, as I was 
nearly famishing with thirst, I heard my dog barking a good deal more 
than he used to do. I tried to get up, but I could not. I called my 
dog, “Nero! Nero!” as loud as I could, but still he kept on barking, 
but I could hear that he was getting nearer to my habitation. But what 
was my surprise when I heard a human voice singing out to some one, 
“Come along, Jack, I must go and see where this dog is going to!” 1 
cannot express my feelings at the first sound of a human voice. Joy 
and fear overcame me, so that I was nearly fainting away when my dog 
came in, and two men close to him. They were quite surprised at 
finding me there, and they asked me several questions, which I was 
scarcely able to answer; but after a little while, I asked one of them to 
give me a drink of water, which I had in my hat, and after I got a little 
revived, I asked them how they came there. 

They told me they belonged to an American schooner, called the 
“ Flying Fish,” of Baltimore, and that they came on shore there to get 
some wood, and to try if they could find any water, and that, on landing, 
they had seen the dog; and being surprised at seeing a dog upon the 
island, which they knew was uninhabited, the second mate and one man 
had followed the dog till they found me; and I told them, as well as I 
was able, how I came on the island, and how long I had been there. 
The second mate, who was talking to me, told me that he would go on 
board of the schooner directly, and acquaint the captain of the schooner 
of my condition; but I begged of him to allow his shipmate to stop along 
with me while he was gone, to which he agreed, and away he went; 
but my feelings during the time he was gone I can’t express, for hope 
and fear were mixed together. 

I asked the man that was left along with me to make my fire up, and 
fry some tortoise, for the dog had dragged a large one close to my hut, 
and my new companion soon killed him, and cooked the best part of it, 
and before it was quite done, the captain of the schooner came up to 
my hut, and he brought four men along with him, to carry me down to 
the boat, and he brought some rum, and some water, and some biscuit 
along with them, for me to have something to eat and to drink before 
they took me away; and the captain and the men had some of my 
tortoise that their shipmate had cooked, and they liked it very well. 
But the first morsel of bread that I tasted I could scarcely get down, for 
it was now two hundred and seventy days since I had tasted a bit of 
bread; and still the Lord had* been kind enough to preserve me, and 
send me help when I was in the greatest distress, and could not help 
myself; and how wonderful that the dog should be the means of my 
deliverance! It was a long time before I came to again, when I got on 
board the schooner; and the people on board told me afterward that 
they could not keep the dog from me during the time that I was lying 
senseless; and as soon as he saw that I moved and spoke again, he ran 
fore and aft the decks like as if he was mad. 

When I came on board of the “ Flying Fish,” it was the 29th day 
of October, 1820, and I was cast away on the 3d day of February, which 
made exactly two hundred and seventy days that I had been on James’ 
Island. Now the schooner lay there eight or ten days after I had been 
on board, to get wood and tortoises on board; and then we sailed from 
the island, and the schooner being bound to Baltimore, in America, we 
went to windward. In the beginning of January, 1821, but a few dap 
after we got round Cape Horn, and being off the Falkland Islands, a 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


314 

sad misfortune befell me: I lost my dog, who died through eating some 
porpoise liver. Some of the crew of the schooner had caught a porpoise, 
and the dog, being used so long to live upon raw meat, ate too greedily 
of the liver, and he died on the 15th day of January, and you may 
depend that I was very sorry for it; but he was gone, and all the fretting 
about him would do no good; so we kept on our course, and arrived in 
Baltimore on the 2d of March, 1821. Now the captain and the crew 
had given me a good many clothes on the passage, for what I had on the 
island were all worn out, and my legs were a good deal better; and the 
captain of the schooner took me up to the owners, and told them what 
state he had found me in; and the owners were kind enough to send 
me to a boarding-house, where I was to stay till I got well, and they 
made me a present of twenty dollars, for which, and all the other kind¬ 
nesses which I had received from them, I thanked them kindly. 

I staid in Baltimore till the 20th day of April, when 1 found myself 
quite well, and shipped on board of a brig, called the “ Buck,” of 
Boston, and she was bound to New Orleans, where we arrived on the 
16th day of May. I forgot to mention that before I left Baltimore 1 sent 
a letter to Mr. Mellish, in an English ship bound to Liverpool, to acquaint 
him with the loss of the “ Spring Grove,’ 1 and I acquainted him that the 
ship had one thousand three hundred barrels of oil in her when she was 
lost, and every other particular about her; and I told him that I intended 
to come to London myself as soon as I had an opportunity. 

Now when we arrived at New Orleans, our brig was found unfit for 
sea, for she was very leaky, and we, the crew, were discharged from 
her; and I being in a strange place, and having very little money, I was 
obliged to look out for another ship as soon as I could; and I shipped 
myself in a steamboat, called the “Olive Branch,” to go from New 
Orleans up the Mississippi to the Falls of Ohio; and I got twenty-five 
dollars per month. I went up in the “Olive Branch” as far as a place 
called Shipping Point, close to the Falls of the Ohio; but it now being 
the latter part of June, and the river being very low, our steamer was 
laid up, and I was paid off’. I got back to New Orleans on the 10th of 
December, but I had the misfortune to hurt my leg on the passage down; 
and when we got to New Orleans, and our cargo discharged, l found my 
leg so bad that I was obliged to take my discharge from the “ Lafayette,” 
and go on shore under the doctor’s hands; and I was obliged to go to a 
boarding-house; but, thanks be to God, I had saved a little money. 

Now the house that I was recommended to was kept by a widow 
woman, and she seemed to be a very industrious woman, but she was 
obliged to keep a bar-keeper, or a man to look after the business. Now 
after I had been in the house for about two months, she asked me, one 
day, if I could read and write; I told her yes. She asked me if I would 
be kind enough to have a look at her books, for she was pretty well sure 
that the man that she had for a bar-keeper had cheated her. I told her 
that I would do it with pleasure; for my leg was getting nearly well; 
and, on overhauling her book, I found a great many frauds. And when 
the man was asked about it, he said that he would settle everything in 
the morning; but that night he ran away, and look nearly fifty dollars* 
that he had received from different people, along with him; and we 
never saw no more of him. 

Now my leg, as I told you before, was nearly well; and she asked me if 
I would be kind enough to look after her bar; and, after a little conside¬ 
ration, I consented. And 1 showed her what money I had of my own 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


315 


before I had anything to do with her money; and she agreed to give me 
twenty dollars a month, and my board; and I went and took charge of 
everything. But, to make a long story short, before I had been her bar¬ 
keeper two months, I became her husband; for I married her the 5th of 
April, 1822; and, thanks be to God, a very good wife she proved to be. 
And I began to look upon myself as settled; and I wrote a letter to my 
son and to Mr. Mellish, telling Mr. Mellish that, if he thought my son 
deserved it, or stood in need of it, to let him have the sixty pounds that 
I put in his hands when I was paid off from the “ Policy.” 

I was beginning to do very well; but we appoint, and the Almighty 
disappoints; for, the sickly season setting in very severe, my wife, my 
dearest Martha, caught the fever, and died in three days after she was 
taken bad; and I buried her on the 25th of July, 1822. I had not been 
long at home before 1 was taken bad, and the doctor advised me to go 
to the hospital, which I accordingly did; but, before I went to the hos¬ 
pital, l had my house shut up, and I left what goods there were, in charge 
of my late wife’s sister; and I took about two hundred dollars, in notes, 
along with me in the hospital. I staid in the hospital about six weeks, 
when it pleased God to let me recover, and get to my senses again; for 
I had been out of my mind nearly all the time that I had been there. 
And when I came to inquire after my late wife’s sister, I was obliged to 
hear that she died about four days after I had gone into the hospital. 
But l soon got better, and I came out of the hospital on the 1st day 
of October; and I felt myself very weak when I came out into the 
fresh air. 

When I got home to where I had lived, I found an empty house; for, 
after my sister-in-law died, everything was taken out of the house, and 
was ordered to be burnt. So here 1 was again, nearly as bad as I was 
when I first came to New Orleans; and I began to take a dislike to the 
place, and I intended to leave it as soon as I could; and the very next 
day I shipped myself on board the “Friendship;” and we sailed from 
New Orleans, the 10th day of October, for Campeachy, to take in a 
cargo of logwood, to take to London; and, thanks be to God, I got quite 
well again. And we soon got our cargo; and we sailed from Campeachy 
the 2d of November, and we had a very good passage home, as far as 
the English Channel, when the wind got round to the eastward, which 
delayed us three or four weeks. Our provisions got very short, and 
especially our water; and, our ship being very leaky, we were obliged 
to put into Falmouth harbor, where we discharged all her cargo; and 
the owners came down to Falmoulh, and, finding that the ship wanted a 
great deal of repair, they paid the crew their wages, and I was dis¬ 
charged on the 5th day of January, 1823. 

Now it being the dead of the winter, and knowing that there would 
be very few ships, in London, to be got at that time of the year, I shipped 
myself on board of a brig, belonging to Bangor, in Wales, called the 
“Jane Ellen;” and she was bound up the Straits, to Smyrna, with a 
cargo of pilchards. And we sailed from Falmouth the 12th of January; 
and, thanks be to God, we had a very good passage out to Smyrna, and 
we arrived there the 3d day of March; and we kept trading from one place 
to another till the latter part of 1824; and nothing particular happened 
during that time. And, thanks be to God, I was in good health, when, 
on the 10th of October, 1824, when we were lying at Cephalonia, our 
captain got a freight for London, to take a cargo of currants there; and, 
when we got our cargo in, we sailed from Cephalonia on the 24th of 


316 NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 

October. And we had a very good passage down as far as the rock of 
Gibraltar, where we were obliged to lay wind-bound for several days, 
for it blew a very heavy gale of wind; but we held on, though a great 
many ships parted from their anchors, and were driven on shore; but 
on the 10th of December it moderated, and we got under weigh, 
and, thanks be to God, we arrived safe at the Downs on the 24th of 
December. 

Our master being eager to get something fresh on board for Christ¬ 
mas day, for dinner, he sent me on shore, in one of the Deal boats, to 
get something; for the master himself was very poorly, and he was not 
able to go. And I had been mate of the brig for about eighteen 
months, for we lost our mate, that came out from England with us, at 
Smyrna, by sickness; so ashore I went. And when I left the brig, the 
weather looked very fair, for the time of the year, and the wind was 
about west by south; but we scarcely got on shore, when the wind 
shifted round to the south-south-east, and it came on to blow tremendous 
hard, and a heavy sea came tumbling in upon the beach. And I wanted 
the watermen to go off at once, but they refused to go off till low water, 
which was about three o’clock in the afternoon, and when I landed, it 
was about eleven o’clock in the forenoon; and the weather came on in 
thick snow showers; and two of the Deal boats tried to get off, but both 
boats were swamped, and two of the Deal men, belonging to the boats, 
were drowned. Now here I was on shore in a heavy gale of wind, and 
my poor shipmates out there by themselves; for our captain, as I told 
you before, was very poorly, and had been so ever since we left Gibral¬ 
tar ; and there were only three men and two boys on board beside him¬ 
self; but I could not help them, if I had given a hundred guineas. 

I could not get a boat to take me on board of the <£ Jane Ellen.” 
When I found that none of the boats could go off with me, I went to 
Lloyd’s agents, and acquainted them how I was situated, for I knew that 
the brig and cargo were insured; but they told me that I must content 
myself till the weather moderated, and they would take care to send me 
on board as soon as possible. But as night came on, the gale was still 
increasing, and there were no hopes of me getting on board that night. 
But I could not sleep, though several people offered me a bed, and I 
staid on the beach till daylight next morning. But it was still blowing 
very hard, but the weather was clearer, and we could see no vessel in 
the Downs, only one large ship, and that was a man-of-war, and the 
poor “ Jane Ellen” was nowhere to be seen. What to do, or what to 
thjnk, I did not know; but I concluded that the brig was lost, and all hands 
perished. I went to Lloyd’s agents again, and asked them what they 
thought of it. They told me that they expected she was lost; and they 
told me that I ought to think myself very lucky that I was on shore out 
of her; but still the captain of the brig was to blame to send any of 
his crew on shore out of the ship, while she was lying in an open road¬ 
stead, and especially this time of the year; and that was all the satisfaction 
I could get from them. 

Now I was on shore, but scarce any money in my pocket; for I had 
nearly been two years in this brig, and had no occasion to draw any 
money from the captain; for, when I joined her, I had my pay from the 
“ Friendship ” to fit me out, and 1 had money on board, beside my 
clothes. But here I was hove upon the wide world once more; and I 
staid in Deal for one week, to try if I could hear anything concerning 
the “ Jane Ellen;” but hearing nothing by New Year’s day, I intended 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 317 

to travel up to London, and go and see if mv son was alive or not. Now 
all the money I had in my pocket when I started from Deal, which is 
seventy-two miles from London, was three shillings and sixpence; and it 
was bitter cold weather, for I started from Deal on the 2d day of January, 
1825; and, thanks be to God and good friends, I arrived in London on 
the 6th of the month; and tired enough I was ; and all the money that 
I had left was twopence. I had middling good clothes on my back, and 
I went to Mr. Mellish to inquire after my son; and when I told Mr. 
Mellish of my new misfortune, he told me that I was a wonderful man; 
but when I asked him concerning my son, he told me that he was 
married to„ his housekeeper, and that they were doing very well; and 
that he had paid the sixty pounds to my son, according to my wish. I 
thanked him very kindly; and he told me that my son, in coming home 
in the “ Seringapatam,” had the misfortune to fall out of the maintop, 
and broke his left arm, and it not being properly set, he had partly lost 
the use of it; and when he came home, having a very good character, 
Mr. Mellish made him wharfinger at his wharf, and after a little time he 
got married. 

I told Mellish how I was situated in regard to money, and he was kind 
enough to give me five pounds; and he told me, that if my circumstances 
would ever allow me to pay him, I might, but he should never ask me 
for it. I thanked him very kindly for it, and I asked him if he would be 
kind enough to send for my son, which he did; and when my son came 
in, he was quite surprised at seeing me, and he and I went home to his 
house. And when I came to tell him how I was situated, he called his 
wife in, and told her that I should have to stay along with them a few 
days, and that I was his father; but I could see by the first appearance 
of her actions that I was an unwelcome guest, for she said she did not 
know how to make room for me. 

I told my son; ‘‘Francis,” said I, “seemingly your wife, whom I 
thought to embrace as a daughter, is not agreeable for me to stay here. 
Give me a few shillings, so that 1 can go and get a lodging somewhere 
for the night;” for I did not let him know that Mr. Mellish had given 
me five pounds. He told me he would try what he could do, and away 
he went; and I heard him and his wife having very high words outside 
of the room, and between other words that passed, I heard her calling 
me a beggar. My temper, at that present time, could not stand that, 
and I got up and went out, and wished them a good night, and I left the 
house, and I have never seen her since; and away I went down to 
Tooley street, in the Borough, and there I got a lodging. 

In a few days I got pretty well round again, and I went to Lloyd’s 
office to report the loss of my brig, and likewise to see if I could recover 
any of my wages; for I was sent on shore on duty, and certainly I ought 
to be entitled to my wages to the time we sailed from the last port; and 
they told me that as I gave in my claim for wages due to me for the 
“Jane Ellen,” that as soon as they had returns from Sierra Leone, they 
would pay me what was due to me. 

I staid in London till the middle of March, when I shipped on board 
of a brig called the “ Intrepid ” packet, and she was bound from London 
to Gibraltar, and from there to Buenos Ayres. And we sailed from 
London the 2d day of April, 1825, and, thanks be to God, we had a very 
good passage to Gibraltar, where we arrived the 1st day of May, and 
sailed from there the 5th of June for Buenos Ayres, where we arrived 
on the 30th day of July. 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


318 

Now at this present time the Buenos Ayreans were at war with the 
Brazilians, and the River Plate was blocked up; so we were obliged to 
go and lay in a place called Helsinado, about seven miles from Buenos 
Ayres, and there we laid till March, 1826, when our captain got a freight 
for Gibraltar, to carry some of the old Spaniards home to their own 
country; and we sailed from Helsinado on the 5th of April, 1826. But 
coming from Helsinado, down the River Plate, we were caught in a very 
heavy Pampiro, and were very near losing the brig; for our mate that 
came from England with us, had left us at Buenos Ayres; and the young 
man that we got in the room of him was not experienced with the country 
he was sailing in; and at twelve o’clock, when I came on deck, he told 
me to clear away the flying jib, and I told him, “ You had better shorten 
sail as fast as you can, or else you will lose every stitch of canvas that 
you have got set, for I see it arising;” and I showed it to him; but he 
said, “ Never mind, do as you are told.” And I told him that for the 
safety of myself and the brig, I could not do it; but if he would not 
shorten sail, I should be obliged to call Captain Gordon, which I accord¬ 
ingly did. And when he came on deck, we began to shorten sail; but 
it was too late then, for the Pampiro struck the brig, and she was hove 
on her beam-ends, and every stitch of canvas that we had set blew into 
ribbons. 

I advised our captain to let go both anchors, so as to fetch the ship’s 
head to wind, that she might righten; and accordingly I went forward, 
and got some of the men to lend me a hand; and I let go the best bower 
anchor, which brought her head to wind; and the brig lightened, for 
she had then been nearly a quarter of an hour on her beam-ends; but 
still she would not bring up; and, with a good deal of trouble, I got the 
small bower anchor clear, and let it go. And she took the chain to the 
beam-end, but still she would not bring up, but still kept drifting; and 
we were afraid we should drive on a sand called the English bank. So, 
after a good deal of trouble, we got our stream anchor clear, and let it 
go; and after she got the best part of the stream cable, she brought up 
in five fathoms water. But all this time neither the captain nor I could 
see anything of the mate, and we were afraid that he had gone over¬ 
board, and had been drowned; but after we got everything middling 
snug, we found our mate stowed away down in the fore-hold, among the 
water-casks; and he said that he was knocked down the fore-hatchway 
when the squall first struck the ship. We did not believe his story; but 
the captain had been obliged to make him mate, for he was one of the 
owners’ nephews. 

Now after we got everything pretty snug, we set the watch again, and 
next morning it turned out to be very fine, and we went to work to bend 
a fresh set of sails, for our old ones were all blown to pieces; and after 
getting our anchors up, and stowing them, which took us two days, we 
went down to Monte Video, where we arrived on the 12th day of April. 
And after putting everything to rights, we sailed for Rio de Janeiro, 
where we arrived on the 1st of May. Now as I told you that we had 
lost all our canvas in the Pampiro, and bent all new ones, except what 
we called our fore and aft spencer, and the brig having only one on 
board, I was obliged to make a new one, for the captain knew that I was 
able to do it; and accordingly the captain bought the canvas, and I cut 
the sail out; and on the 18th of May I and the mate were working about 
the sail, and I saw him putting a piece of canvas the wrong way; and I 
said, “ Mr. Middleton, you are putting that piece in the wrong way.” 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


319 

He told me to mind my own business; and words arose between him 
and me, and at last he jumped up and struck me. I was obliged to 
stand in my defense, and I gave him a good beating, so that he was 
obliged to go below. Now I knew well enough that when the captain 
came on board, he would take the mate’s part, and I should have to go 
on shore to go to prison, which I did not like at all. 

Knowing the u Ranger” frigate wanted hands, I hailed the “Ranger’s” 
boat, and she came along side, and I told the officer of the boat what 
had happened, and that I intended to enter for his Majesty’s service, 
upon which he told me to get into the boat; and so I got once more on 
board of a man-of-war. My old captain tried all that he could do to get 
me back again; but I found that a man-of-war was quite diiferent fiom 
what it was when I was in them in war time; for there was no starting, 
or fears of any flogging; and if a man was only attentive and clean, and 
did what he was told, he never needed to be afraid of getting himself 
into trouble. So, after I got settled on board of the “ Ranger,” the cap¬ 
tain was kind enough to give me the rate of gunner’s mate; and I did 
very well. And we sailed from Rio de Janeiro the latter part of May, 
bound to Callao, on the coast of Peru. We had a long and tedious pas¬ 
sage round the Cape, but arrived safe at Valparaiso on the 19th of June, 
after a passage of seventy-seven days. We staid on the coast of Peru 
till the beginning of 1828; and on the 5th of February a sad accident 
happened to me—for I was both shot and drowned on that day! 

To explain this, 1 must go to some particulars that occurred when we 
were lying at a place called Coquimbo, the last place we were going to 
touch at before we went round the Horn. And the governor of the place 
and his suite being on board to take their farewell of our captain and 
officers, and our ship being hove short, and all ready for starting, and 
our captain intended to salute the governor when he left the ship, and 
in getting the ship under weigh, I was sent to look out for the buoy. 
And I being in the larboard fore-chains, when the anchor was up to the 
bows, and after the anchor was settled and fixed, I went forward upon 
the anchor, to try to get the buoy-rope clear of the anchor-stock; and 
while in the act of going forward, they fired the forecastle gun, which 
was a long nine-pounder; and the whole charge reached me, and hove 
me away from the ship, and knocked the senses out of me, so that I laid 
upon the water like one dead; but I soon began to go down. But there 
was an English brig lying there, called the “ Mediaeval,” of London, 
and her boat had been on board of our ship, to put some letters on board, 
for us to take home; and she shoving off from the ship when the accident 
happened, they saw my hat, and they picked it up, and then they saw 
the wake I made in going down, and they hooked me with a boat-hook, 
for I was going down as fast as I could; and they hauled me into the 
boat, and brought me on board of my ship. But I was senseless to the 
whole of it; so I did not come to myself again, not till next day, about 
dinner time. And I was told that our doctor said that I was dead, and 
that they were going to heave me overboard; but a young gentleman, a 
doctor’s mate, a passenger, said that I was not dead; and he, with God’s 
help, saved my life. If anybody should doubt my tale about being shot 
and drowned, I could bring plenty of witnesses that saw it, both officeis 
and men. 

The next day, when I came to my senses, I felt very weak; but I soon 
got better, and I was able to go to my duty in about a fortnight’s time. 
And we had a very good passage round Cape Horn; and we arrived in 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


320 

Rio de Janeiro in the beginning of April; and after we completed our 
water, we sailed for England; and we arrived at Spithead on the 10th 
of June, 1828. 

When I came back, I went on board of the “ Castor ” frigate, and I 
was shipped as able seaman, for she had no vacancy for a petty officer, 
but I was promised the first vacancy that occurred. We went to join 
the experimental squadron in the North Sea, under the command of Sir 
Pulteney Malcom, and there we cruised till the beginning of August; 
and then the fleet went to the Cove of Cork, and from there we went a 
cruising off the Land’s End. On the 5th of February, 1833, we were 
ordered to go to Chatham to refit; and while at Chatham, fitting out, I 
got married to an old widow woman, who was nearly my own age, and a 
very good wife I found she was; and I married her on account that she 
had a heavy family to bring up, and I thought I could do no better with 
my money than to assist the widow and the fatherless; and, thanks be to 
God, I have never missed it. 

Now, after our ship was fitted out, we were ordered to go to Lisbon, 
where we arrived on the 12th of June, and from there we were ordered 
to go to Oporto to lay off the bar; and our captain, God bless him, was 
kind enough to make me quarter-master. And on the 13th of Septem¬ 
ber, I having the middle watch on deck, that is, from twelve o’clock at 
night till four o’clock next morning, our butcher—his name was Henry 
Ellis—was very bad in the sick bay; and the sick bay men came to me, 
about two o’clock, telling me that Ellis, the butcher, was very bad, and 
that he wanted to see me; and after asking permission from the officer 
of the watch, I went down to the sick bay, and I found Ellis very bad, 
for the doctor did not expect he would live till the morning. 

Ellis asked me to grant him one favor, and he being in the state that 
he was in, I could not well refuse him; and I told him that anything that 
laid in my power I would do for him; and he asked me to speak to the 
captain to have him buried on shore, for “ I know I can’t live much 
longer.” And then, getting hold of my hand, he said to me, “ Swear 
that, if it ever lay in your power, you will protect my wife and children.” 
I promised it to him; for I being a married man at that time, I had little 
thought that it would ever be in my power to perform it, for my wife 
lived at Chatham, and his at Portsmouth, and I only promised him to 
satisfy his mind; and, poor soul, he died very shortly after I had left 
him. And the next morning, the first thing I did was to acquaint the 
captain of poor Ellis’s last wish, and the captain very kindly granted it; 
and we took him on shore in the bar-boat, and he was buried in the 
English burial-ground at Oporto. 

We staid off Portugal till March, when orders came out from England 
for our ship to proceed to Plymouth, to refit our ship, to attend upon the 
Queen, who was going that summer to the Continent to see her friends. 
We arrived in Plymouth by the latter part of April; and after we had 
refitted our ship, we went round to Portsmouth, to take the state barge 
on board, in order to attend upon Queen Adelaide; and from Portsmouth 
we went to the Nore, where we laid till the Queen came down from 
London in her yacht. And from there we went to Helvoetsluys, on the 
coast of Holland; and after landing the Queen, we went back to Sheer¬ 
ness, where we took in stores for the flag-ship at Lisbon. And on the 
23d day of August we sailed from the Nore, and went down to the 
Downs; and on the 26th day of August, at three o’clock in the morning, 
we got under weigh from the Downs, with the wind about north-north- 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 321 

cast. And a little after six o’clock in the morning, being just below 
Dover, we had the misfortune to run the “ Chameleon,” revenue-cutter, 
down; and out of seventeen men and officers on board of her, we could 
only save two men and two boys. Though our ship was hove to instantly, 
and our quarter boats down, we could not save more; so there were 
thirteen poor souls drowned. 

We staid by the spot some time afterward, but we could see no more 
of anything belonging to her. And we proceeded down to Plymouth, 
and there we had a court-martial upon our captain and officers, and our 
captain was honorably acquitted; but our third lieutenant was dismissed 
the service, and all hands on board were very sorry for it, for he was a 
very good man. And after the court-martial was over, we sailed for 
Santander, on the coast of Spain, where we arrived on the 1st of Octo¬ 
ber; but it being a very bad roadstead for ships to lay in, in winter time, 
we went down to a place called Passages, and there we got our ship in, 
and moored her. But we found that our ship struck at low water, and 
we were obliged to go from there to Santander again; and we went into 
Santander harbor, and there we lay snug enough. 

One of my shipmates that came out of the “ Castor ” along with me, 
got married^ and he lived at Gosport; and he asked me to come over 
with him, one night, before I left the ship, to spend the evening with 
him and his wife, and I agreed; and enjoying ourselves till it was too 
late for me to go on board, I was obliged to get a bed somewhere for 
the night; and my shipmate’s wife took me to a widow woman who let 
beds. What was my surprise when I found this woman to be the widow 
of my old shipmate Ellis, our butcher in the “Castor” frigate! All 
my promises that I made to him came fresh in my mind; and after pay¬ 
ing her for my bed, I gave her half the money that I had in my pocket, 
which was no great deal; and when I left the “North Star,” I took my 
chest and things to her house, and she washed my clothes for me, while 
we were fitting out; for my wife lived round at Chatham; and after the 
“ Princess Charlotte ” was ready for sea, we sailed from Spithead on the 
3d day of July; and we were bound up the Mediterranean, to relieve 
the “ Caledonia;” and we relieved her on the 2d day of August. 

We kept cruising about at sea, for we could not go into Malta, for it 
was very sickly. We arrived at Malta the latter part of October; and I 
had not been there long, when I received a letter from Chatham, 
acquainting me of my wife’s death. She died the same day that I 
sailed from Spithead, after being bad only twenty-four hours. We lay 
in Malta all the winter; and the latter part of January, 1838,1 was taken 
very bad; and I was obliged to be invalided on the 14th day of February, 
from Malta hospital As soon as I was able to be moved, I w r as sent 
home in the “Portland” frigate; and she took me and some more invalids 
as far as the Rock of Gibraltar, where we were sent on board of the 
“ Bellerophon,” and she took us to Portsmouth; and we arrived at Spit¬ 
head on the 8th day of April. And from her I was sent on board of 
the flag-ship, and from there I was discharged. And after I got my pay 
from the “ Princess Charlotte,” 1 went up to London, to pass the Board 
of Admiralty, for my pension; but all that they gave me was seventeen 
pounds, four shillings, per annum. And from there I went to Chatham, 
to see my late wife’s family; but I found that they had made away with 
everything that belonged to me. And when 1 found how things were, I 
came back again to Gosport, with a full intent to fulfill my oath, that I 
swore to Henry Ellis, when he was dying. And accordingly I told Ellis’s • 
21 


NARRATIVE OF AN OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 


322 

widow all that had happened between me and her late husband; and I 
told her that I would do anything in my power for her and her children; 
and that, if she was a mind to wait till my last wife had been dead a 
twelvemonth, I would marry her; and, after a little consideration, she 
consented. And we were married on the 26th day of July, 1838, in 
Stoke Church. 

On the 16th of August, 1844, I was discharged, and the Admiralty 
granted me a pension of twenty-one pounds per annum for life; and, 
with what little I can earn, I live as comfortable as circumstances will 
allow me to be: and I hope that I am truly thankful to the Lord for the 
many blessings and mercies that I have received at his hands through 
life. Oftimes, when I see a poor man or woman going along without 
any shoes on them, or scarcely any clothes t-€i cover them, how thankful 
I am to feel that I have got a bed to lie on, and clothes to cover me, and 
a house to shelter me from the weather. ‘‘ Have I deserved to be thus 
favored any more than them? No; but it is God’s mercy that provides 
for me; and I hope that the Lord will grant me one prayer, and that is, 
contentment with the lot the Almighty has been pleased to give me. 
And I find every day new blessings and mercies to be thankful for; and 
especially for health, which is one of the greatest blessings we can 
enjoy; for here I am, a man seventy-three years old, and knocked about at 
sea better than fifty years, in which time I experienced some hard trials; 
and still, thanks be to God, some days I walk above twenty miles, which 
is a great deal for a man of my ager But I know that the Lord fits the 
back to the burden. 


DESTRUCTION 


OF THE 


OCEAN STEAMER ARCTIC, 


BY COLLISION WITH THE VESTA, A FRENCH PROPELLER, ON THE BANKS OF NEWFOUNDLAND, 
ON WEDNESDAY, THE 27tH OF SEPTEMBER, 1854, BY WHICH DISASTER 


MORE THAN THREE HUNDRED PERSONS PERISHED. 


The Ocean Steamer Arctic formed one of the Collins’ line of American 
steamers, plying between New York and Liverpool, so called in contra¬ 
distinction to those of the Cunard or British line, the latter having been 
built in England, and owned and controlled by an English company. 
The Arctic was built in New York, in 1850, at an expense of nearly 
one million of dollars, and was one of the largest and noblest steamships 
in the world. Of beautiful proportions and great speed, she was the pride 
of her countrymen, as a specimen of their attainments in marine 
architecture. 

On her homeward bound passage, at noon, on the 27th of September, 
1854, she came in collision with the French propeller Vesta, on the 
banks of Newfoundland; and a few hours thereafter the last vestige of 
her noble form, together with more than three hundred of her passengers 
and crew, disappeared beneath the waters. The fate of the smaller 
vessel was more fortunate. Provided by her more cautious builders 
with bulkheads, or water-tight partitions, between her different sections, 
she succeeded in gaining port in safety. 

When tidings of this awful event reached our country, a profound 
sensation was created. The people of the city of New York, the most 
mercurial and impulsive of any in America, the earliest to be aroused 
by, and the earliest to forget, any startling event, were most intensely 
excited. The Arctic was a New York vessel; the pride of the great 
commercial metropolis; and numbers of her prominent citizens were 
known to have been on board of her. To give an idea of the effect 
there, we make brief extracts from a city paper of the day. 

“ The sorrow and excitement in New York, on the reception of the 
sad tidings, were beyond expression. Thousands of our citizens are 
bereaved of relatives, and tens of thousands have lost friends and 
acquaintances. Early in the morning the newspaper offices, and the 
office of the steamship company, were thronged with anxious inquirers 
for further news, and all day long the crowds were kept up by fresh 
arrivals. The flags on the City Hall, on the hotels, and the shipping in 
the harbor, were at half-mast through the day. Business was neglected, 
and the whole town bore on its outward features evidences of the sorrow 
within. There were hundreds of persons crowding Adams & Co.’s 
Oflice, waiting their several turns to see Mr. Burns, one of the saved; 
and each concerned to ascertain whether there was not some possible 

t (323) 



DESTRUCTION OF THE OCEAN STEAMER ARCTIC. 


324 

chance that a beloved brother, or sister, or friend, in the Arctic, had 
escaped. Old men, as well as young, were sobbing like children, and 
telling their grief to the passers-by, with that absence of all reserve which 
so overpowering a misfortune is apt to produce. 

In the office of E. K. Collins & Co., the proprietors of the line, a 
similar scene was being enacted. A large crowd had collected to hear 
the report of Mr. Brennan, an attache of the enginery department, 
whose careworn looks, and marks of excessive fatigue, showed that he 
was one of the survivors of the sad catastrophe. A deep feeling of 
anxiety seemed to pervade the minds of all present, and eager questions 
were propounded to Mr. Brennan in rapid succession. Some described 
the personal appearance of absent ones, bound to them by affinities and 
deep friendship, some by ties of consanguinity, and others bound by 
nearer and dearer ties, and inquired if he had seen them enter any of 
the boats which left the vessel previous to the last one, on which he was 
saved. His words were anxiously waited for, and in some instances 
they were sufficient to buoy up an expiring hope, but in others to lead 
them to despair of ever meeting the loved ones again on earth. 

At brief intervals, the announcement of the arrival of an installment 
of the telegraphic dispatch from Halifax would draw all to another part 
of the room, and, with feelings of mingled hope and fear, they listened 
in breathless silence to the words of the dispatch read by a gentleman 
connected with the office. When the reading of the installments was 
finished, many were the impatient exclamations because the names of 
the saved, in the boats which had arrived, were not forwarded first, instead 
of Mr. Baalham’s account of the catastrophe; and when, at last, 
the concluding portion of the dispatch contained the list of the names 
of those who were safe in Halifax, near a hundred hearts beat heavily 
and rapidly as they stood in expectation of the announcement of a name 
which was to make ihem rejoice, or drive them into a despairing gloom. 
The reading of the list was commenced. The announcement of several 
names was received with exclamations of deep joy, accompanied with 
words of thankfulness to heaven for the mercy extended to them. As 
the end of the list was approached, deeper sighs were drawn, and 
when it was announced that the names had been all read, ‘Oh God. n 
4 Oh God. n were the words that many uttered in the deep anguish that 
wrung their hearts. The list, was again read, but it only confirmed their 
worst fears; and after the announcement that no more dispatches would 
be received, those present left the apartment which had been the scene 
of such exciting interest, and its doors were closed for the balance of 
the day.” 

After the announcement by telegraph that Captain Luce, and several 
of his companions in suffering, had arrived safely in Quebec, the entire 
city was on the qui vive , waiting for the least word in confirmation of the 
intelligence, and fearing the next announcement would be that the state¬ 
ment was premature, and was not justified by the facts. But as another 
and another dispatch arrived, each one stating explicitly the safety of 
the noble captain, who chose to stand by the wreck and make himself 
his last thought in his efforts to save, a feeling of joy amounting to 
enthusiasm seemed to animate all; and when it was announced that 
Captain Luce’s statement was being forwarded by telegraph, the most 
intense anxiety was manifested to know his words. The following is 
Captain Luce’s statement to E. K. Collins, Esq., and dated at Quebec, 
Saturday, October 14, 1854: 


DESTRUCTION OF THE OCEAN STEAMER ARCTIC. 325 

“It becomes my painful duty to inform you of the total loss of the 
Arctic, under my command, with many lives; and I fear among them 
must be included your own wife, daughter and son, of whom I took a 
last leave the moment the ship was going down , without ever expecting 
to see the light of another day, to give you an account of the heart¬ 
rending scene. 

The Arctic sailed from Liverpool on Wednesday, September 20th, at 
eleven a. m., with two hundred and thirty-three passengers, and a crew 
of about one hundred and fifty. Nothing of special note occurred 
during the passage until Wednesday, September 27th, when, at noon, we 
were on the Banks, in latitude 46° 45' north, and longitude 52° west, 
steering west by compass. 

The weather had been foggy during the day; generally a distance of 
half to three quarters of a mile could be seen, but at intervals of a few 
minutes a very dense fog, followed by being sufficiently clear to see one 
or two miles. At noon I left the deck for the purpose of working out 
the position of the ship. In about fifteen minutes I heard the cry of 
“ Hard starboard” from the officer of the deck. I rushed on deck, and 
had just got out, when I felt a crash forward, and at the same moment 
saw a steamer under the starboard-bow; at the next moment she struck 
against our guards, and passed astern of us. The bows of the strange 
vessel seemed to be literally cut or crushed off for full ten feet, and 
seeing that she must, probably, sink in a few minutes, and taking a hasty 
glance at our own ship, and believing that we were comparatively unin¬ 
jured, my first impulse was to endeavor to save the lives of those on 
board the sinking vessel. The boats were cleared, and the first officer 
and six men left with one boat, when it was found our own ship was 
leaking fearfully. 

The engineers were set to work, being instructed to put on the steam 
pumps, and the four deck pumps were worked by the passengers and 
crew, and the ship headed for the land, which I judged to be about fifty 
miles distant. I was compelled to leave my boat with the first officer 
and crew to take care of themselves. 

Several ineffectual attempts were made to stop the leak by getting 
sails over the bows; but finding the leak gaining on us very fast, notwith¬ 
standing all our very painful efforts to keep her free, I resolved to get 
the boats ready, and as many ladies and children placed in them as 
possible; but no sooner had the attempt been made than the firemen and 
others rushed into them in spite of opposition. 

Seeing this state of things, I ordered the boats astern to be kept in 
readiness until order could be restored, when, to my dismay, I saw them 
cut the ropes in the how , and soon disappear astern in the fog. Another 
boat was broken down by persons rushing at the davits, and many were 
precipitated into the sea and drowned. This occurred while I had been 
engaged in getting the starboard guard-boat ready, and placed the second 
officer in charge, when the same fearful scene as with the first boat was 
being enacted—men leaping from the top of the rail , twenty feet, crush¬ 
ing and maiming those who were in the boat. I then gave orders to the 
second officer to let go, and row after the ship, keeping under or near 
the stern, to be ready to take on board women and children, as soon as 
the fires were out, and the engines stopped. My attention was then 
drawn to the other quarter-boat, which I found broken down, but hanging 
by one tackle. A rush was made for her also , and some fifteen got in, 
and cut the tackle, and were soon out of sight. I found that not a 


326 


DESTRUCTION OF THE OCEAN STEAMER ARCTIC. 


seaman was left on board, nor a carpenter, and we were without any tools 
to assist us in building a raft, as our only hope. The only officer left 
was Mr. Dorian, the third mate, who aided me, with the assistance of 
many of the passengers, who deserve great praise for their coolness and 
energy in doing all in their power up to the very latest moment before 
the ship sunk. 

The chief engineer, with a part of his assistance, had taken our 
smallest deck-boat, and before the ship went down, pulled away with 
about fifteen persons. 

We had succeeded in getting the fore and main-yard and two topgal¬ 
lant-yards overboard, and such other small spars and material as we 
could collect, when I was fully convinced that the ship must go down in 
a very short time, and not a moment was to be lost in getting the spars 
lashed together to form a raft, to do which it became necessary to get the 
life-boat, (our only remaining boat,) into the water. 

This being accomplished, I saw Mr. Dorian, the third officer, in charge 
of the boat, taking care to keep the oars on board to prevent them from 
leaving the ship, hoping still to get most of the women and children in 
this boat. At last they had made considerable progress in collecting the 
spars, when an alarm was given that the ship was sinking, and the boat 
was shoved off without oars or anything to help themselves with; and 
when the ship sunk, the boat had got clear, probably an eighth of a mile, 
to leeward. 

In an instant , about four and three quarters p. M., the ship went down , 
carrying every soul on board with her. 

I soon found myself on the surface, after a brief struggle, with my 
own helpless child in my arms, when again I felt myself impelled down¬ 
ward to a great depth, and before I reached the surface a second time, 
had nearly perished, and lost the hold of my child. As I again struggled 
to the surface of the water, a most awful and heart-rending scene pre¬ 
sented itself to my view— over two hundred men , women and children 
struggling together amidst pieces of wreck of every kind , calling on 
each other for help, and imploring God to assist them. Such an appall¬ 
ing scene may God preserve me from ever witnessing again. 

I was in the act of trying to save my child, when a portion of the 
paddle-box came rushing up edgewise, just grazing my head, falling 
with its whole weight upon the head of my darling child. Another 
moment, I beheld him lifeless in the water. I succeeded in getting on 
to the top of the paddle-box, in company with eleven others; one, how¬ 
ever, soon left for another piece, finding that it could not support so 
many. Others remained until they were one by one relieved bv death. 
We stood in water at a temperature of 45°, up to our knees, and fre¬ 
quently the sea broke directly over us. We soon separated from our 
friends on other parts of the wreck, and passed the night, each one of 
us expecting every hour would be our last. 

At last the wished for morning came, surrounding us with a dense 
fog—not a living soul to be seen but our own party—seven men being 
left. In the course of the morning, we saw some water-casks and other 
things belonging to our ship, but nothing that we could get to afford us 
any relief. Our raft was rapidly settling, as it absorbed water. 

About noon, Mr. S. M. Woodruff, of New York, was relieved by death. 
All the others now began to suffer very severely for want of water, except 
Mr. George F. Allen and myself. In that respect we were very much 
favored, although we had not a drop on the raft. The day continued 


DESTRUCTION OF THE OCEAN STEAMER ARCTIC. 327 

foggy, except just at noon, as near as we could judge, we had a clear 
horizon for about half an hour, and nothing could be seen but water and 
sky. Night came on, thick and dreary, with our minds made up that 
neither of us would again see the light of another day. Very soon three 
more of our suffering party fell down from exhaustion, and were washed 
off by the sea, leaving Mr. Allen, a boy, and myself. Feeling myself 
getting exhausted, I now sat down, for the first time, about eight o’clock 
in the evening, on a trunk, which providentially had been found on the 
wreck. In this way I slept a little throughout the night, and became 
somewhat refreshed. 

Young Keyn, the German boy who was with us, suffered intensely. 
He happened to have some biscuit with him which had become soaked 
with the salt-water, and eating these only increased his thirst, and to 
make matters still worse, he drank some of the sea-water. His suffer¬ 
ings were beyond all description. Twice he jumped overboard, saying 
he would rather die than suffer as he was doing; and each time we 
pulled him back on the wreck. At one time he cut open a vein in his 
arm and sucked his blood. 

About an hour before daylight — now Friday, the 29th — we saw a 
vessel’s light near to us. We all three of us exerted ourselves to the 
utmost of our strength in hailing her, until we became quite exhausted. 
In about a quarter of an hour the light disappeared to the east of us. 
Soon after daylight a bark hove in sight to the north-west, the fog having 
lightened a little, steering apparently for us; but in a short time she 
seemed to have changed her course, and again we were doomed to dis¬ 
appointment; yet I felt hope that some of our fellow-sufferers might 
have been seen and rescued by them. 

Shortly after we had given up all hopes of being rescued by the bark, 
a ship was discovered to the east of us, steering directly for us. We 
now watched her with the most intense anxiety as she approached. 
The wind changing, caused her to alter her course several points. 
About noon they fortunately discovered a man on a raft near them, and 
succeeded in saving him by the second mate jumping over the side, and 
making a rope fast around him, when he was got on board safely. This 
man saved proved to be a Frenchman, who was a passenger on board 
the steamer which we came in collision with. 

He informed the captain that others were near, on pieces of the 
wreck; and, going aloft, he saw us and three others. We were the 
first to whom the boat was sent, and safely taken on board about three 
p. m. The next was Mr. James Smith, of Mississippi, second-class 
passenger. The others saved were five of our firemen. The ship 
proved to be the Cambria, of this port, from Glasgow, bound to Montreal, 
Captain John Russell. 

From the Frenchman who was picked up, we learned that the steamer 
wkh which we came in collision was the screw steamer Vesta, from St. 
Pierre, bound for and belonging to Grenville, France, and having on 
board one hundred and forty passengers and twenty seamen. As near 
as we could learn, the Vesta was steering east-south-east, and was cross¬ 
ing our course two points, with all sails set, wind west by south. Her 
anchor stock, about seven by four inches square, was driven through the 
bows of the Arctic, about eighteen inches above the water line, and an 
immense hole had been made, at the same instant, by the fluke of the 
anchor, about two feet below the water line, raking fore and aft the 
plank, and finally breaking the chains, leaving the stock remaining in 


328 DESTRUCTION OF THE OCEAN STEAMER ARCTIC. 

and through the side of the Arctic; or it is not unlikely, as so much of 
her bows had been crushed in, that some of the heavy longitudinal 
pieces of iron running through the ship may have been driven through 
our side, causing the loss of our ship, and, I fear, hundreds of most 
valuable lives.” 

To this account of Captain Luce, we annex that of a'passenger, Mr. 
James Smith, a native of Scotland, now a citizen of Mississippi. It 
contains some facts not given in any other narrative, and is enhanced by 
the pious emotions disclosed by the narrator: 

“ During the day, up to the time of the accident, the weather had 
been quite foggy, and I was somewhat astonished and alarmed several 
times when on deck, seeing the weather so thick, that I fancied not more 
than three or four of the ship’s lengths ahead could be seen, and she 
going on at full speed, without any alarm bell, steam whistle, or other 
signal being sounded at intervals, in some such manner as I had been 
accustomed to in a fog on other vessels. At about fifteen minutes after 
the meridian, eight bells had been struck, and while sitting in my state¬ 
room in the forward cabin, the earnest cry of a voice on deck (who I at 
the moment took to be the man on the lookout) to “stop her, stop her; 
a steamer ahead,” was heard with alarm by myself and all others in the 
cabin; at the same time the man giving the alarm could be heard running 
off toward the engine-room. 

I stepped out of my stateroom, and while endeavoring, with Mr. 
Cook, my room-mate, to calm the excitement among the ladies in the 
cabin, and before the man giving the alarm on deck had reached the 
engine-room, we were made aware of the concussion by a somewhat 
slight jar to our ship, accompanied by a crashing against the starboard 
bow. It was a moment of awe and suspense, but I think we all seemed 
to satisfy ourselves that the shock was slight, and that, as we were on so 
large and strong a vessel, no serious damage had happened or could well 
happen to such a ship, in an occurrence of such a nature. With such 
a reliance on my own mind, at any rate, I was very quickly on deck, 
and in detached accounts from other passengers, learned that a screw 
steamer, with all sail set, had struck us on the starboard bow, and glanc¬ 
ing aft our starboard wheel and wheel-house, struck her again, and she 
passed off astern of us out of sight immediately in the thick fog. I saw 
on the first glance at our bulwarks that all was right with us, but instantly 
began to get alarmed from our careening over on the side we had been 
struck, as well as from the call for the passengers to keep on the port- 
side. I understood, also, at this time, that one of our boats had been 
cleared away and lowered with our first officer and six of the men, to 
render assistance to the other vessel, and that our ship was making round 
in search of her also. 

I saw Captain Luce on the paddle-box, giving orders in one way and 
another, and most of the officers and men running here and there on the 
deck, getting into an evident state of alarm, without seeming to know 
what was to be done or applying their energies to any one thing in par¬ 
ticular, except in getting the anchors and other heavy articles over 
to the port-side of the ship. I looked over the starboard bow and saw 
several large breaks in the side of our ship, from eight to twelve or 
fourteen feet abaft of the cut-water, and I was convinced that in the ten 
or fifteen minutes’ time our wheels were further submerged in the 
water than usual. Our ship seemed to right herself somewhat after 
getting the deck weight upon the larboard, but it was too evident that 













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Court of the United States for the Southern District of Ohio. 


The above is a representation of the scene 
In the center stands Cajptuin Luce, with his 
the agonized passenger* are in prayer. The 
glimpse of the ocean, wl ith a few figures on 


•^nal ^vvv\ 


on the Arctic, a short time before she went down, 
young son clinging to him. Beyond, a group of 
background, partially enveloped in fog, discloses a 
oating fragments. On the right, the brave Dorian 


is busy gatheri 
cannon. •* Un 
boomed like a 
too became 


\W *j\dyc\yc. 


materials for the raft; on the left,young Holland is applying the torch to the 
ed by the base desertion of others, he continued firing the signal gun, that 
knell over the waters, and when the wreck sank to its gloomy grave, he 
d with the dead. Was death ever more heroic?”—Page 340. 


Entered according to Act of Congress, A. D. mdccclv, by Henry Howe, in the clerk’s office of the 









































































DESTRUCTION OF THE OCEAN STEAMER ARCTIC. 329 

Captain Luce himself, as well as all hands, was becoming aware of our 
danger; and, from the tremendous volume of water being thrown out 
from our steam pumps, I was convinced we were making water at a 
fearful rate. 

Then came in full view before us the other vessel, presenting a 
most heart-rending spectacle; the whole of her bow, for at least ten feet 
abaft her cut-water, was literally crushed away, leaving, to all appearance, 
an open entrance to the sea; and how she had remained above water for 
so many minutes seemed a mystery. Her decks were covered with 
people, and all her sails on all three of her masts were set. We merely 
passed her again, and she was in less than a minute hid in the fog, but 
scarcely out of sight when we heard arise from her deck a loud and 
general wail of mourning and lamentation. It was just previous to, or 
at the same time that we thus came in sight of and passed her, that our 
wheels went over two or three separate individuals in the water, as well 
as a boat and crew, who had evidently left the other ship for safety on 
ours. One man, only, we picked up, an old weather-beaten French 
fisherman, who, having leaped from the small boat before she went under 
our wheel, caught a rope hanging from our ship, and was finally pulled 
on board of us, and from whom we learned something of the other vessel. 
Captain Luce had, by the time of our coming in sight of the Vesta, 
become so convinced of our own critical situation, that our only or best 
chance was to keep under headway as fast as possible toward the land. 

A deep-seated, thoughtful look of despair began to settle upon every 
countenance—no excitement, but ladies and children began to collect 
on deck with anxious and inquiring looks; receiving no hope or consola¬ 
tion, wife and husband, father and daughter, brother and sister, would 
weep in each other’s embrace, or kneel together imploring Almighty 
God for help. Men would go about the decks in a sort of bewilderment 
as to what was best to be done; now laying hold of the hand pumps 
with redoubled energy, or with sickening effort applying their power to 
the hauling up of freight out of the forward hold, already floating in 
water before the lower hatches were opened. System of management 
or concentration of effort was never commenced or applied to any one 
object. Two separate ineffectual attempts to stop the leaking by drop¬ 
ping a sail down over the bow, were made, and the engines were kept 
working the ship ahead toward the land; but in the course of an hour, I 
should think, from the time of the collision, the lower furnaces were 
drowned out and the steam pumps stopped. Then it seemed to become 
only a question of how many hours or minutes we would be above 
water. The first officer with his boat’s crew we had le "t behind from 
the first. The second officer, with a lot of the sailors, had lowered 
another boat and left the ship, and a general scrambling seemed to be 
going on as to who should have places in the only two remaining boats 
that I saw on deck. The stern tackling of another had given way from 
the weight of persons in it while it was swinging over the side, and I 
think several must have been lost with that. I saw one lady hanging to 
the bow tackle of it after the stern had broken loose. One of those 
still remaining was a large one, on the quarter-deck, occupied by ladies 
and children and some few gentlemen. The other was on the upper 
deck forward, and in the possession of a lot of firemen. Things were 
in this condition at about two hours after the accident. Captain Luce 
was superintending the lowering of spars and yards, aided mostly by 
passengers, for the purpose of making a raft, and complaining that all 


330 DESTRUCTION OF THE OCEAN STEAMER ARCTIC. 

his officers and men had left him. Most of the women and children 
were collected round the boat on the quarter-deck seemingly resigned 
to their fate. 

Some few gentlemen exerted all their powers to prevail on others to 
work on the pumps, but all to no purpose, the ship kept on gaining in quan¬ 
tity as steadily as time progressed. The engines had stopped working, and 
I, seeing that the chief engineer, with some of his assistants and firemen, 
had got the forward boat in the water over by the bow, under the pre¬ 
tense I saw of working at the canvas, which was hanging over the bow, 
so as to sink it down over the leaking places, but seeing, as I thought, 
symptoms of their real intention to get off from the ship without too 
many in the boat, I dropped myself down near by them on a small raft 
of three planks about a foot wide each, and ten or twelve feet long and 
an inch in thickness, lashed together with some rope and four hand¬ 
spikes, and which I had just previously helped to lower into the water 
for the purpose of working from about the bow of the ship. Finding it 
bore me up, I shoved off, intending to get along side of the engineer’s 
boat, but as I shoved off several firemen and one or two passengers 
dropped down into the boat, the engineer protesting against their doing 
so, and at the same time pushed off, and pulled well away from the ship, 
with about twelve or fifteen persons in his boat, declaring to those on 
board, at the same time, that he was not going off, but would stay by the 
ship to the last. At the same time, he, or those in the boat with him, 
continued to pull away in what I considered was the direction of the 
land, and were in a few minutes lost in the fog. 

I now saw there was no probable chance for me but to remain where 
I was, on my frail little raft, until I could see some better chance after 
or before the ship went down. She had now settled down to the wheel- 
houses. The upper furnaces had for some time been drowned out. 
People on board were doing nothing but firing signal guns of distress, 
trying to get spars overboard, and tearing doors off the hinges, nothing 
else seemed to present itself, as the means of saving the lives of some 
three hundred souls still on board. 

I have crossed the Atlantic nine times now, and nearly every pre¬ 
vious time have had in charge one or more of my family or near rela¬ 
tives, but now, I thanked my God that I had not even an acquaintance 
with me in this my adversity. I tightened up my little raft as well as I 
could, so as to make it withstand the buffetings and strainings of the 
heavy rolling sea, and, with the aid of a long narrow piece of plank, 
which I tore up off the others, using it as a paddle, I kept hovering within 
two or three hundred yards of the sinking ship, watching operations 
there, and keeping myself from being drifted out of sight, so as to have 
what company there might be left on rafts like my own after our doomed 
vessel had sunk beneath the surface. In this position, I saw three diffe¬ 
rent small rafts like my own leave the ship, one of them with three and 
another with two of the firemen standing erect on them, the third with 
the old Frenchman we had already picked up, and one of the mess boys 
of the ship sitting on it. Those three rafts all drifted close by me, so 
near that I was hailed by one and another of them with the request for 
us all to keep near together, to which I assented, but told them that we 
had all better try and keep by the ship till she went down. At this 
time, I noticed that the large boat, which had been on the quarter-deck, 
was in the water, and was being freighted pretty fully, to all appearance, 
with several females and a good number of males, and that the raft of 


DESTRUCTION OF THE OCEAN STEAMER ARCTIC. 


331 

spars was at the same time being lashed together, and several getting on 
it. I noticed also a couple of large empty water-casks, lashed together, 
with five men on them, apparently passengers, leave the ship and drift¬ 
ing toward me, while within about fifty yards they capsized with the 
force of a heavy swell, giving their living freight an almost immediate 
watery grave. Three of them, I noticed, regained the top side of the 
casks only to be immediately turned over again, and the casks separat¬ 
ing, I saw no more of them. My heart sickened at so much of imme¬ 
diate death, and still I almost longed to have been one of them, for at 
the same instant, and, as near as I can judge, at about four and a half 
o’clock, the ship began to disappear—stern foremost she entered under 
the surface, her bow rising a little as she slowly went under; and I dis¬ 
tinctly heard the gurgling and rushing sound of the water filling her 
cabins, from stem to stern, as she went under; taking, I should think,from 
thirty seconds to a minute in disappearing, with a large number of people 
still upon her deck. 

Thus went down the noble steamer Arctic, leaving nothing behind but 
a mixture of fragments of the wreck and struggling human beings. I 
saw one large half-round fragment burst above the surface, and several 
of the struggling fellow-mortals get on it; this, and the raft of spars, 
with several on it, and the boat full of people, were all that l could dis¬ 
tinctly make out as being left in the neighborhood of where the ship 
went down to windward; and the three small rafts to leeward, along with 
my own, were left to pass the night now beginning to close in upon, and 
hide away from my sight, I wish I could say from my memory, this 
dreadful day; but such a nighl of extreme melancholy, despair, and 
utter loneliness, I hope I shall never again experience. I had, it is 
true, become familiarized with death, and felt as if it would be great 
relief to go immediately like the rest; and, for this end, I, with some¬ 
what of satisfaction, thought of the vial of laudanum in my pocket, pre¬ 
viously intended for a better use—but, oh! how unprepared was I to see 
my God, and for my family’s sake how necessary I felt it was for me 
still to live a while longer, else would I have emptied that vial or rolled 
over the side of my plank most willingly. 

The night was cold and chilly, the dense fog was saturating my 
already wet clothing. I was standing to the ankles in the water, with the 
the waves every now and then washing me above the knees, no hope in 
my mind of being drifted to the land, and in a part of the ocean where 
it is expected a thick fog continually hangs over the surface, precluding 
the hope of any chance vessel, in passing near us, being aware of our 
situation—all circumstances seemed to say, it is but a question of how 
long the physical frame can endure this perishing state, or how long 
before a more boisterous sea turns over or separates the slightly fastened 
planks. Thus reflecting, I offered up to Him who ruleth the winds and 
waves—to Him unto whom we all flee in our deepest distress—a sincere 
petition for mercy, that, as I had now been called to account, I might, 
notwithstanding my unworthiness, find an acceptance through the merits 
of Him who suffered for us, and who stands ready to aid, and who says, 
Knock and it shall be opened unto you — unto whom can we look, oh, 
our God! but unto thee?—our whole life is, after all, as this hour, a 
mere question of a few short days, and what are all the mere vanities 
transpiring during an ambitious but short existence, compared to an 
assurance which maketh our latter end a fearless one. Relieved 
and consoled by this my last petition, I was somewhat calmly resigning 


332 DESTRUCTION OF THE OCEAN STEAMER ARCTIC. 

myself to await my time, as long as my strength and power of endur 
ance could hold out, when I discovered a large square basket, lined 
with tin, floating lightly by me — one of the steward’s dish baskets it 
proved to be — and, paddling up to it, I got it aboard, and, with the 
help of a small piece of rope I had round my shoulders, I lashed it 
pretty firmly on the top of the plank; thus, not only tending to make my 
raft more secure, but affording me a comparatively dry place to sit on 
the edge of it, and, with my feet inside, forming a shelter for my legs 
up as high as my knees. After getting this all arranged, and while sit¬ 
ting watching the water every now and then dashing over the top of it, 
and becoming convinced that it would soon be partly filled and add to 
my discomfort, as well as to the weight of the raft, I was again surprised 
to hear a distinct rattle against the side of the raft, which, proving to be 
a small air-tight tin can, a part of a set of such used as life-preservers, 
I seized hold of it, as an additional token of the presence of a protect¬ 
ing Providence. I cut out one end of it with my pocket-knife, and 
found it to answer the purpose of what, above anything else, I then 
needed—a bailing-pot—and by which I was enabled to keep my little 
shelter clear of water; and so acceptable, as a protection from the cold, 
damp blast, did I find this little willow house, that I soon found myself 
cramped down into the inside, thus keeping not only my feet and legs, 
but the lower part of my body somewhat warm. In this sort of situa¬ 
tion, I wore away the tedious night, and the breaking dawn revealed to 
my sight nothing but thick mist, the unceasing rolling waves, and my 
own little bark—not a single vestige of all else that the night closed 
upon was now to be seen. 

About midday the sun cleared away the mist, and the heat of his rays 
was truly grateful; but, oh! how desolate in its very cheerfulness, seemed 
the prospect he thus unfolded. Over the whole broad expanse of waters, 
not a sail could be seen, not a thing save the figures of the two firemen, 
about half a mile distant, still standing erect, and showing themselves 
at intervals, as every heavy swell raised them on its crest. I had not 
yet felt either hunger or thirst, for which I was truly thankful, for I had 
but a handful of dry broken crackers in my hat, which I felt determined 
to save to the last, and of course no water. I dreaded the craving of 
either. The day wore on still clear until about an hour before nightfall, 
when the two firemen (within hailing distance of whom I had worked 
my way again) discovered a ship under full sail, broadside toward us; 
but it was with faint hopes of success that I hoisted my handkerchief, 
tied to the end of the strip of wood I was using as a paddle, the firemen 
doing the same with a shorter piece of wood in their possession. The 
ship, at one time, we noticed, laid to or altered her course for a moment, 
giving us a hope that she had discovered something, but the night closed 
in again, and with it all our hopes of a rescue. 

I passed through this night in a dozing, dreary, shivering, half sensible 
sort of state, with all sorts of fancies before my drowsy and somewhat 
disordered mind, and all sorts of pictures in my wakeful moments, both 
of a pleasing and of a revolting character, floating before me on the 
dark surface of the water. Now and then, during the night, I fancied 
myself hailed by various surrounding parties, convinced, as I was, at the 
same time, that none others were within hailing distance but the two 
firemen. My disordered fancy, however, kept me for more than half 
the night, in an agreeable state of excitement, under the firm belief that 
companies of boats’ crews were on the search for us, and most lustil) 


DESTRUCTION OF THE OCEAN STEAMER ARCTIC. 


333 

did I answer every fancied or real signal. The morning dawned again, 
and with it a horrid scene of despair at the gloomy prospect of the same 
dense, foggy atmosphere, now and then fully developing to view the 
same two erect figures dancing about on the rolling surf; and, in my 
selfish liberality, I bargained with myself that I would endure still 
during this day, seeing that my two companions, who were obliged to be 
on their feet, supporting each other in a very precarious looking back-to- 
back attitud-e, were able to still exist. I felt a little hungry this morn¬ 
ing, and ate half a biscuit. While warming myself by about two hours 1 
paddling up toward them, during which the fog partially cleared away, 
and while close to them, we all became excited at the sight of a sail far 
to the south, as I thought, but broadside toward us. Like the one on 
the previous day, I had little hope of her coming much nearer; but, 
being determined to leave no effort untried which might possibly attract 
their notice, I stript myself, and taking off my shirt, tied it by the sleeves 
to the end of my paddle, and, with my handkerchief on a small strip of 
wood tied on above it, I thought I had a tolerably conspicuous signal, 
and waved it to and fro for more than an hour, until the ship was nearly 
out of sight—and just as I had lowered it, in utter hopelessness, we all 
descried, at the same instant, in the opposite direction, another sail— 
and on to us—just entering, as it were, into our grand amphitheater, 
through a cloud of mist that seemed to rise and clear away above the 
vessel, forming a grand triumphal archway around, our Eureka, like a 
tower of promise, in the center. Feeling sure, at first sight, that this 
one was standing toward us, I did not long remain undeceived, for she 
began to increase in size as time wore slowly on; and, although she was 
falling to leeward considerably, as she advanced, still I felt sure, if she 
kept on the same tack, she would undoubtedly see our signals before 
passing beyond. My large signal, too, continued to drift me nearer to 
her track, and took me almost out of sight of my two companions. 

When within about two or three miles of us, and about an hour and a 
half after she first hove in sight, we were relieved by her backing her 
sails, altering her course, and lying-to for awhile; then, hoisting a signal 
on her spanker-gaff, she put about and bore away, on and on, far in the 
distance, on the opposite tack, until my heart began to fail again, doubt¬ 
ing whether she was beating to windward for us, or had gone on her way, 
rejoicing in the discovery and rescue of only a portion of the unfortunate 
wretches within range of her. But, again, how light and buoyant was 
the joy, as she at last put about, and stood directly for us; and on and 
on she advanced, like a saving angel, until we could see her noble look¬ 
ing hull distinctly rise and fall; within little over a mile distant from us, 
when she backed her sails again, and waited for some time in the prose¬ 
cution of her mission of mercy, no doubt, relieving some of our scatter¬ 
ing companions from a like precarious state. Soon, she filled away 
again; and, at last, lying-to close by the two firemen, I saw her boat 
lowered with five men in it, who, picking up the two firemen in their 
course, came dashing along direct for my raft, and soon bouncing along 
side, I allowed myself to tumble aboard of them, unable, physically, to 
adopt anything of a grateful action, and, morally, overpowered with 
gratitude to God and to those his instruments. 

I remained speechless until I got on board the ship. Before getting 
on board, however, the boat went away off some distance to windward, 
and picked up the three other firemen, whom I had seen leave the 
Arctic, but who had been ever since out of view. We all got huddled 


334 DESTRUCTION OF THE OCEAN STEAMER ARCTIC. 

upon the deck, somehow, although rather awkwardly, and making my 
way down to her neat little cabin, as well as my stiff feet and legs 
would allow, I had the pleasure of paying my respects to Captain John 
Russell, and found myself on board the ship Cambria, of Greenock, 
bound from Glasgow to Quebec. Captain Russell, the Reverend Mr. 
Walker, of the Free Church of Scotland, and his very kind and atten¬ 
tive lady, Mr. Sutherland, of Caithnesshire in Scotland, Mr. John Mc- 
Naught, and several of the passengers of the steerage, paid us every 
attention that I could have desired; Captain Russell giving me up the 
berth which he had been using himself, and putting everything on board 
in requisition that might tend in the least to relieve and make us com¬ 
fortable. I was surprised to learn that the old Frenchman, whom we 
had picked up from the Vesta, was our good genius on this occasion; 
being directly in the track of the approaching Cambria, he was picked 
up by the second mate of the Cambria, Mr. Ross, jumping overboard, 
with a line, and, seizing hold of the old man, they were both pulled on 
board; and the rescued Frenchman, in the best English he could muster, 
made Captain Russell aware that others were near, who then went to the 
mast-head, and, with his glass, made out the other four pieces of wreck, 
which we were all on, and, making his long tack to windward, came 
back in the midst of us, picking up first, from that half-round piece 
of wreck that I saw burst above the surface at the time of the ship 
going under, Captain Luce, Mr. George Allen, of the Novelty Works, 
and a young German, a passenger on the Arctic, by the name of 
Ferdinand Keyn. 

They, along with eight others of those who went down with the ship, 
had gained this piece of wreck, which turned out to be a segment of <5ne 
of the paddle-boxes—and, singular as it seems, Captain Luce, who had 
stuck by his sinking ship to the last minute, was thus saved at last on 
the very boards, which, as commander, were his post of duty. The 
same thing, however, had caused the death of an interesting son, by 
striking or falling on him as it burst above water. The eight others, who 
had gained it with them, had, from time to time, perished on it; and Mr. 
Keyn was on the point of making the ninth, when the Cambria hove in 
sight. Mr. Allen, too, although saved himself, lost his wife and several 
other relatives, who were on board with him, and whom he saw placed 
on the raft of spars before the ship went under. I found those three my 
companions in the cabin of the Cambria, and being attended to like 
myself. The old Frenchman and the five firemen were comfortably 
quartered away in the forecastle, all suffering much; and the old man 
having lost his 4 compagnon de voyage,’ the mess boy, who held out as 
long as he could, but finally rolled overboard. In the course of a few 
days, we all began to get around and feel pretty well, with the exception 
of the severe pains in our feet, which continued with very little intermis¬ 
sion; and, at the same time, it was most congenial to our feelings, that, 
through the leadership of Mr. Walker, we had the daily opportunity of 
rendering praises and thanksgiving to a gracious God for his mercy and 
goodness toward us. Captain Russell feels the circumstance of his 
instrumentality in the matter with great gratification, on account of 
Captain Nye, of the Collins’ steamer Pacific, having, some years ago, 
run great risk in saving him and his crew from off the sinking Jessie 
Stevens, in a severe gale on the Atlantic.” 

Of the five boats that left the Arctic, only two were ever heard 
from, the one commanded by Mr. Francis Dorian, the third mate, the 


DESTRUCTION OF THE OCEAN STEAMER ARCTIC. 


335 

other by Mr. William Baalham, the second mate. The remainder, 
doubtless, sunk in the storm of the succeeding Saturday. The persons 
in these boats, with eight or ten more on the rafts or fragments of the 
wreck, comprised all of the survivors of the catastrophe. Not a single 
female on board was saved—all perished! 

Mr. Dorian’s conduct, during these trying scenes, was noble. He was 
the only one of all the principal officers that remained faithful to the 
orders of his superior to the last. The recital of Peter McCabe, a 
waiter in the cabin, the solitary survivor of the large raft, which Mr. 
Dorian worked to construct with much zeal, unfolds to us other ter¬ 
rible incidents of this calamity. In common with the rest of the crew 
and passengers, McCabe seemed at first to have had no idea that the 
ship had encountered serious damage by the collision, but when he came 
on deck, he was soon undeceived. He was busy at work on the raft, 
when there came a dull rushing sound, and a long wail, and the Arctic 
went down. He was himself ingulfed in the vortex of the sinking ship, and 
gave himself up for lost. The waters had closed over him, but presently 
he perceived, as it were, a dim light over his head, and he rose to the 
surface. He caught hold of a door, then of a barrel, then he swam to 
the raft, to which the seventy poor creatures were clinging. The sea 
was rough —not strong; but, in the confusion, the raft had been so im¬ 
perfectly constructed, that the waves dashed over it, and the miserable 
passengers were swept from their hold. What follows, we will not 
attempt to paraphrase. Has human eye ever witnessed a scene of more 
awful and protracted agony? 

“ Those who had life-preservers did not sink, but floated with their 
ghastly faces upward, reminding those who still remained alive of the 
fate that awaited them. In the midst of all this, thank heaven, I never 
lost hope, but retained my courage to the last. One by one, I saw my 
unfortunate companions drop off; some of them floated off, and were 
eaten and gnawed by fishes, while others were washed under the raft, 
and remained with me till I was rescued. I could see their faces in the 
openings, as they were swayed to and fro by the waves, which threatened 
every moment to wash me off. The raft, at one time, was so crowded 
that many had to hold on by one hand. Very few words were spoken 
by any, and the only sound that we heard was the splash of the waters, 
or the heavy breathing of the poor sufferers, as they tried to recover 
their breath after a wave had passed over them. Nearly all were sub¬ 
merged to their arm-pits, while a few could with great difficulty keep 
their heads above the surface. The women were the first to go; they 
were unable to stand the exposure more than three or four hours. They 
all fell oft* the raft without a word, except one poor girl, who cried 
out in intense agony, ‘Oh, my poor mother and sisters!’ When I had 
been a few hours on the raft, there were not more than three or four 
left.” 

One of these three or four gave to Peter McCabe a paper, which he 
describes as like a “ small map,” and which, as he thought, was some 
kind of title-deed. A few minutes after he had given it, as though all 
energy had been exhausted in the preservation of that precious docu¬ 
ment, which he had at length been compelled to consign to the custody 
of another, his grasp gave way, and the owner of the title-deed was 
washed away. It is strange enough that McCabe, despite of all his 
efforts, could not succeed in preserving that precious paper; he made 
ineffectual efforts to get it into his pocket; he swam with it some time 


DESTRUCTION OF THE OCEAN STEAMER ARCTIC. 


336 

between his teeth, but all was in vain; the deed, which had been so 
dearly prized, was carried away from his mouth, and added for a moment 
to the relics of the wreck—then seen no more. A little incident of this 
kind seems to bring the scene before one’s eyes with a more vivid reality 
even than the recital of the greater and more sweeping destruction. 
Before eight and a half o’clock that evening, every soul on the raft with 
McCabe were either dead or washed off; and “I,” says he, “was left 
alone! But a few minutes before the last man went, I asked him the 
time. He told me, and died in fve minutes afterward /” 

Nothing could have been more exemplary on this occasion, than the 
resignation of the women, or the ready obedience displayed by the pas¬ 
sengers. If all had acted as they did upon that fatal day, we should 
now be commenting upon a far less distressing tale; but the flight of the 
seamen and officers in the boats, full two hours before the vessel sunk, 
was the cause of all the multiplied horrors of the disaster.* Individuals, 
however, displayed undaunted courage. The good conduct of one young 
man, who fired the cannon, an engineer learning under instructions, 
named Stewart Holland, was more conspicuous than that of any other 
person on board. u A more brave, courageous and self-sacrificing 
being,” says Captain Luce, “ I never saw.” He tried to save all, with¬ 
out seeming to think anything about his own safety, never attempting to 
get into a boat. His end was heroic. Unmoved by the base desertion of 
others, he continued firing the signal gun, that, like a death-knell, boomed 
over the waters; and when the wreck sunk to its gloomy grave, he, too, 
became numbered with the dead. Was death ever more noble? 

Holland was from Washington City. His father, on first learning of 
the event, still clung to the hope that his son had escaped the perils of 
the wreck, by some such miracle as saved Captain Luce. He exclaimed: 
“My son is not lost; I will not give him up; but,” he continued,“ better 
a thousand times that he should perish in the manly discharge of his 
duty, than have saved a craven life by such cowardice and selfishness as 
marked the conduct of many of the crew.” Such sentiments show a 
father worthy of such a son. Soon after his arrival in New York, Mr. 
Dorian addressed the following letter to Mr. Isaac Holland: 

“lama stranger and can offer no apology for addressing you, further 
than my desire of adding my humble testimony to the merits of your 
noble boy. He was in the habit of daily coming to my room, telling me 
funny stories, etc., and, in this way, I had the pleasure of forming an 
intimate acquaintanceship with him. Believing that anything connected 
with him in the last scene might possess a dear, though painful, interest 
to you, I send you all I know. I regret it is so exceedingly scanty. 

About two hours after the Arctic was struck, the firing of the gun 

* A larger part of the seamen were foreigners, the offscourings of the marine service 
of many countries. Had they been of that class of brave, hardy, right-principled 
men that years ago composed the crews of our merchant vessels, their conduct might 
have been more like that exhibited on board the British steamer Birkenhead, which 
was lost on the coast of Africa a few years since. That vessel struck on a hidden 
rock, stove a plank at the bow, and went down in half an hour’s time. A regiment 
of troops was on board. As soon as the alarm was given, and it was apparent that 
the ship’s doom was sealed, the roll of the drum called the soldiers to arms on the 
upper deck. That call was promptly obeyed, though every gallant heart knew 
that it was his death summons. The women and children were placed in the boats, 
and nearly all saved. There were no boats for the troops, but there was no panic, 
no blanched, quivering lips among them. Down went the ship, and down went the 
heroic band, shoulder to shoulder, firing a feu de joie as they sunk beneath the 
waves. 



DESTRUCTION OF THE OCEAN STEAMER ARCTIC. 


337 

attracted my attention; and I recollect that, when I saw Mr. Holland, it 
struck me as remarkably strange that he alone, of all belonging to the 
engineering department, should be there. He must have had a good 
chance to go in the chief engineer’s boat and be saved, but he did not, 
it seems, make the slightest exertion to save himself. His whole con¬ 
duct can be accounted for by the simple word duty, and nothing else. 

I recollect that, about an hour before the ship sunk, I was hurriedly 
searching for spikes, to help to form a raft. I had just passed through the 
saloon; on the sofas were men who had fainted—and there were many 
of them, too—the ladies were in little groups, clasped together; and they 
seemed to me to be strangely quiet and resigned. As I emerged from 
the saloon, the scene that presented itself was one I hope never to see 
again. The passengers had broken up the bar; the liquors were flow¬ 
ing down the scuppers. Here and there were strong, stout-looking men 
on their knees, in the attitude of prayer; others, when asked to do 
anything, were immovable, perfectly stupefied. 

In the midst of this scene, Stewart came running up to me; his 
words were: ‘Dorian, my powder is out; I want more; give me the 
key.’ ‘Never mind the key,’ I replied; ‘take an ax and break open 
the door.’ He snatched one close behind me, and down into the ship’s 
hold he dived, and I went over the ship’s side to my raft. Half an hour 
later, when busy at the raft, a voice hailed me, and, on looking up, I 
again saw Stewart, when he hurriedly asked: ‘Dorian, have you a com¬ 
pass in your boat?’ ‘No,’ I replied; and off he went. He knew that 
any chance I had would be shared with him; and I have often thought 
how strange it was that that young man should, for a moment, quit his 
gun to inquire after my safety, and never, for a moment, think of his 
own. But such was Stewart Holland. I recollect distinctly his appear¬ 
ance as he hailed me from the deck. The right side of his face was black 
with powder, and two large spots on the left side. When he spoke, his 
countenance seemed lighted up with something like a quiet smile.” 

The clergy of our large cities preached discourses upon the loss of 
the Arctic. We conclude this article by a pathetic extract from a sermon 
by the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, delivered in his church of the Pil¬ 
grims, at Brooklyn, the power of which will strike every heart. The 
text was the forty-sixth Psalm, first three verses: “God is our refuge 
and strength, a very present help in time of trouble: therefore will not 
we fear, though the earth be removed and the mountains be carried into 
the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, 
though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.” 

“It was autumn. Hundreds had wended their way from pilgrimages; 
from Rome and its treasures of dead art, and its glory of living nature, 
from the sides of Switzer’s mountains, from the capitals of various 
nations; all of them saying in their hearts, we will wait for the Septem¬ 
ber gales to have done with their equinoctial fury, and then we will 
embark; we will slide across the appeased ocean, and in the gorgeous 
month of October we will greet our longed-for native land, and our 
heart-loved homes. And, so, the throng streamed along from Berlin, 
from Paris, from the Orient, converging upon London, still hastening 
toward the welcome ship, and narrowing every day the circle of engage¬ 
ments and preparations. They crowded aboard. Never had the Arctic 
borne such a host of passengers, nor passengers so nearly related to so 
many among us. The hour was come. The signal ball fell at Green¬ 
wich. It was noon also at Liverpool. The anchors were weighed ; the 
22 


DESTURCTION OF THE OCEAN STEAMER ARCTIC. 


338 

great hull swayed to the current; the national colors streamed abroad, 
as if themselves instinct with life and national sympathy. The bell 
strikes; the wheels revolve; the signal gun beats its echoes in upon every 
structure along the shore, and the Arctic glides joyfully forth from the 
Mersey, and turns her prow to the winding channel, and begins her 
homeward run. 

The pilot stood at the wheel, and men saw him. Death sat upon the 
prow, and no eye beheld him. Whoever stood at the wheel in all the 
voyage, Death teas the pilot that steered the craft, and none knew it. 
He neither revealed his presence nor whispered his errand. And so, 
hope was effulgent, and lithe gayety disported itself, and joy was with 
every guest. Amid all the inconveniences of the voyage, there was 
still that which hushed every murmur— home is not far away. And 
every morning, it was still one night nearer home, and at evening, one 
day nearer home! Eight days had passed. They beheld that distant 
bank of mist that forever haunts the vast shallows of Newfoundland. 
Boldly they made at it, and plunging in, its pliant wreaths wrapped them 
about. They shall never emerge. The last sunlight has flashed from 
that deck. The last voyage is done to ship and passengers. At noon, 
there came noiselessly stealing from the north that fated instrument, of 
destruction. In that mysterious shroud, that vast atmosphere of mist, 
both steamers were holding their way with rushing prow and roaring 
wheels, but invisible. At a league’s distance, unconscious, and at 
nearer approach, unwarned ; within hail and bearing right toward each 
other, unseen, unfelt, until, in a moment more, emerging from the gray 
mists, the ill-omened Vesta dealt her deadly stroke to the Arctic. The 
death-blow was scarcely felt along the mighty hull. She neither reeled 
nor shivered. Neither commander nor officers deemed that they had 
suffered harm. 

Prompt upon humanity, the brave Luce (let his name be ever spoken 
with admiration and respect) ordered away his boat with the first officer 
to inquire if the stranger had suffered harm. As Gourlie went over the 
ship’s side, oh, that some good angel had called to the brave commander, 
in the words of Paul, on a like occasion, “ except these abide in the ship 
ye cannot he saved /” They departed, and with them the hope of the 
ship—for now, the waters gaining upon the hold and rising up upon the 
fires, revealed the mortal blow. Oh! had now that stern, brave mate, 
Gourlie, been on deck, whom the sailors were wont to mind—had he 
stood to execute efficiently the commander’s will—we may believe that 
we should not have to blush for the cowardice and recreancy of the 
crew, nor wept for the untimely dead. But, apparently, each subordinate 
officer lost all presence of mind, then courage, and so honor. 

In a wild scramble, that ignoble mob of firemen, engineers, waiters, 
and crew, rushed for the boats, and abandoned the helpless women, 
children, and men, to the mercy of the deep! Four hours there were 
from the catastrophe of the collision to the catastrophe of sinking. In 
that time, near two hundred able-bodied men, well directed, might have 
built an ample raft, stored it for present necessity, filled the boats with 
discretion, and put off from the sinking ship with a flotilla, that ere many 
hours would have been hailed by some of the many craft that pass and 
repass that ill-fated spot. It was not so to be. All command was lost. 
The men heeded but one impulse, and that the desperate selfishness of 
an aroused and concentrated love of life. They abandoned their posts 
They deserted their duty. They betrayed their commander. They 


DESTRUCTION OF THE OCEAN STEAMER ARCTIC. 339 

yielded up to death more than two hundred helpless souls committed to 
their trust. And yet, even for these, let there be some thought of 
charity. Let us not forget the weakness of the flesh ; the absence of the 
first mate, whom they were wont to obey; the terrible force of panic, 
even upon brave men; the sense of the hopelessness of effort to save 
so many, and the instinctive desire of self-preservation. All this is but a 
little. 

But so much extenuation as there may be, let them have its benefit 
who certainly need every cover of charity, to save them from the indig¬ 
nation of a grieved and outraged community. Let it be remembered, 
also, that individuals among them acted most nobly, and, because the 
multitude were base, let not the exceptional cases be forgotten. Let 
that single officer, who did cling to the last manfully to his duty—the 
third mate, Dorian—be remembered; and that man who was set to fire the 
signal gun of distress, young Holland, who stood by his post until the 
ship sunk, and was in the very act of firing as the last plunge was 
made ; and that engineer, who had a boy under his care, but refused to 
leave in the first boat, where a place was offered him, because he could 
not find his ward, and would not go without him. Let us charitably hope 
that many more such individual acts occurred, unnoticed and unreported, 
to redeem the crew and engineers from such disgrace as weighs heavily 
upon them. Many a poor fellow lies beneath the waves, unable to 
defend himself, who may have lost his life because he was faithful to the 
last; and his heroism may be without a witness, his name without a 
defender. 

How nobly, in the midst of weakness and terror, stood that worthy 
man, Luce, in this terrible scene—calm, self-sacrificing, and firm to the 
end. Of all the witnesses, but one has disparaged his exertions. He 
says, that this noble commander ‘ seemed like a man whose judgment 
was paralyzed .’ Yet this man says, that when he was rushing despe¬ 
rately for the boat, Captain Luce withstood him, and tore the very 
raiment from his back, exclaiming: ‘ Let the passengers go in the boat 
and with disgraceful naivette he says: ‘ No more attention was paid to 
the captain than to any other man on board. Life was as sweet to us as 
to others .’—(Patrick Tobin.) Without doubt such a man would think his 
judgment was paralyzed who would not run; whose life was not so 
sweet as his duty; who could die, but could not abandon a trust as sacred 
as was ever committed to human hands. Nor do I remember, in all my 
reading, any Roman heroism that can compare with one incident recorded 
by one witness. When Captain Luce was urged to enter one of the 
boats, he declined utterly. He was urged to let his son go in—that son 
whom, afterward, sinking, he carried in his arms—that son that, rising 
from the wave, was slain in his bosom by the stroke of a piece of the 
wreck. But should a man give precedence to anything that belonged to 
him, over the hundred helpless creatures that clung to him? His thrice 
heroic reply was: 4 My son shall share his father’s fate!' 

Now, all over the deck, was there displayed every frantic form of 
fear, of anguish, of bitter imploration, of transfixed despair. Some, 
with insane industry, strove at the pumps; others rushed headlong over 
the sides of the ship; the raft was overburdened ; the sea was covered 
with men struggling for a little time against their fate. But let us 
remember that there were other scenes than these. There were scores 
there who had long known that, by death, heaven was to be entered. 
There were those who had rested the burden of their sin upon Him 


340 


DESTRUCTION OF THE OCEAN STEAMER ARCTIC. 


who came to take away the sin of the world. Not in vain had they 
prayed every day, for years, that they might be ready whenever the Son 
of Man should come. There were mothers there, that, when the first 
shock was over, settled thejir face to die, as if it were to dream in 
peaceful sleep. Maidens were there, who looked up in that tremendous 
hour as the bride for her bridegroom. Oh! in the dread crisis, upon 
that mournful sea, which mists covered, that the tragedy of the waters 
might not be seen of the sun, how many were there that could say, 
6 God is our refuge and strength , a very present help in trouble /’ 
There, friends exchanged their last embraces; they determined to die, 
holding in their arms those best beloved, and to yield up together their 
lives to the hands of God. Oh, noble loves! that in such an hour 
triumph over all fear, and crown the life with true grandeur! Oh, noble 
trust! that, in the shock of such a sudden death, could mount up above the 
waves, and behold the Redeemer, and rest in him, to the taking away of 
all fear! In such an hour, every one was tried by infallible tests. Then, 
the timid became heroic, and the heroic became timed. Then it was 
neither wealth, nor honors, nor station, nor pretense, that could give 
help. Strength, and skill, and foresight, were all useless. Nothing was 
of worth, except a clear-eyed piety that could behold the Invisible—a 
faith that could rest the very soul in the hands of its Creator, and a hope 
that could behold so much in heaven, that it willingly let go its hold 
upon the earth. I will not doubt that, in those staterooms, many a prayer 
was uttered, which attending angels wafted to heaven; in that cabin, 
there were men and women who waited calmly for the event, as one 
waits for the morning. At length the time was ended. That great ship, 
treacherously stabbed, and drinking in the ocean at its wounds, gave her 
last plunge. With one last outcry, the devoted company were whelmed; 
and, high above all other sounds, there came a roaring from the black, 
uplifted chimney, as if the collected groans of all were mingled with 
the last groan of the ship itself. 

Oh, what a burial was here! Not as when one is borne from his 
home, among weeping throngs, and gently carried to the green fields 
and laid peacefully beneath the turf and the flowers. No priest stood 
to pronounce a burial service. It was an ocean grave. The mists alone 
shrouded the burial-place. No spade prepared the grave, nor sexton 
filled up the hollowed earth. Down, down they sunk, and the quick 
returning waters, smoothed out every ripple, and left the sea as if it had 
not been.” 


THE 


LOST RUSSIAN SAILORS, 

WHO WERE ABANDONED ON THE DESERT ISLAND OF EAST SPITZBERGEN: TO WHICH IS 
ADDED THE NARRATIVE OF THE MISFORTUNES OF THE CREW OF THE 


RUSSIAN SHIP ST. PETER. 


In the year 1743, Jeremiah Okladmkoff, a merchant of Mesen, in the 
province of Jugovia, and the government of Archangel, fitted out a vessel 
carrying fourteen men. She was destined for Spitzbergen, to be employed 
in the whale and seal-fishery. For eight successive days after they had 
sailed, the wind was fair; but on the ninth it changed, so that instead of 
getting to the west of Spitzbergen, the usual place of rendezvous for the 
Dutch ships, and those of other nations annually employed in the whale- 
fisheries they were driven eastward of those islands; and, after some days, 
they found themselves at a small distance from one of them, called East 
Spitzbergen. 

Having approached this island within about three wersts, or two English 
miles, their vessel was suddenly Surrounded by ice, and they found them¬ 
selves in an extremely dangerous situation. In this alarming state a 
consultation was held, when the mate, Alexis Himkof, declared, he 
recollected he had heard that some of the people of Mesen, having some 
time before, formed a resolution of wintering on this island, had accord¬ 
ingly carried from that town timber proper for building a hut, and had 
actually erected one at some distance from the shore. 

This information induced the whole company to resolve on wintering 
there; if, as they hoped, the hut still existed: for they clearly perceived the 
imminent danger in which they were, and that they must inevitably perish 
if they continued in the ship. They, therefore, dispatched four of the 
crew in search of the hut, or any other succor they could meet with. 
These were Alexis Himkof, the mate; Iwan Himkof,his godson; Stephen 
Scharapof, and Feoder Weregin. As the shore on which they were to 
land was uninhabited, it was necessary that they should make some pro¬ 
vision for their expedition. They had almost two miles to travel over 
loose bridges of ice, which being raised by the waves, and driven against 
each other by the wind, rendered the way equally difficult and dangerous. 
Prudence, therefore, forbade their loading themselves too much, lest being 
overburdened, they might sink between the pieces of ice and perish. 

Having thus maturely considered the nature of their undertaking, they 
provided themselves with a musket, a powder-horn, containing twelve 
charges of powder, with as many balls; an ax, a small kettle, a bag with 
about twenty pounds of flour, a knife, a tinder-box and tinder, a bladder 
filled with tobacco, and every man his wooden pipe. Thus equipped 
these four sailors arrived on the island, little suspecting the misfortune 
that was about to befal them. The first thing they did was to explore 
the country, and soon discovered the hut they were in search of, about 

(341) 



THE LOST RUSSIAN SAILORS. 


342 

a mile and a half from the shore. It was thirty-six feet in length, eighteen 
in breadth, and as many high. It contained a small antechamber, about 
twelve feet broad, which had two doors, one to shut out the exterior air, 
the other to communicate with the inner room. This contributed greatly 
to keep the larger room warm when once heated. In the large room was 
an earthen stove, constructed in the Russian manner; that is, a kind of 
oven without a chimney; which serves occasionally either for baking, 
for heating the room, or, as is customary among the Russian peasants in 
very cold weather, to sleep upon. 

This discovery gave our adventurers great joy. The hut had, however* 
suffered much from the weather, having now been built a considerable 
time. They passed the night in it, and early the next morning hastened 
to the shore, impatient to inform their comrades of their success, and also 
to procure from the vessel such provisions, ammunition, and other neces¬ 
saries as might better enable the crew to winter on the island. Their 
astonishment and agony of mind, when, on reaching the place where they 
had landed, they saw nothing but an open sea, free from ice, which but 
the day before had covered the ocean, may more easily be conceived 
than described. A violent storm which had arisen during the preceding 
night, had been the cause of this disastrous event. But they could not 
tell whether the ice which had before hemmed in the vessel, had been 
driven by the violence of the waves against the ship, and shattered her 
to pieces; or whether she had been carried out to sea by the current, a 
circumstance which frequently happens in those seas. Whatever accident 
had befallen her, they saw her no more ; and as no tidings were ever 
afterward received of her, it is most probable that she sunk, and that all 
on board of her perished. 

This unfortunate event deprived the wretched mariners of all hope of 
ever being able to quit the island, and they returned to the hut full of 
horror and despair. Their first attention was employed, as may easily be 
imagined, in devising the means of providing subsistence and repairing their 
hut. The twelve charges of powder which they had brought with them, 
soon procured them as many reindeer, with which animals the island 
abounds. 

It has already been observed that the hut discovered by the sailors had 
sustained some damage. There were cracks in many places between the 
boards of the building, which allowed free admission to the air. This 
inconvenience was, however, easily remedied; as they had an ax, and 
the beams were still sound, it was an easy matter to make the boards 
join again very tolerably; beside, as moss grew in great abundance all 
over the island, there was more than sufficient to fill up the crevices, to 
which wooden houses must always be liable. Repairs of this kind cost 
the unhappy men the less trouble, as they were Russians, for all Russian 
peasants are good carpenters, building their own houses, and being, in 
general, very expert in handling the ax. 

The intense cold which makes those climates habitable to so few 
species of animals, renders them equally unfit for the production of 
vegetables. No species of tree, or even shrub, is found on any of the 
islands of Spitzbergen, a circumstance of the most alarming nature to our 
sailors. Without fire it was impossible to resist the severity of the climate; 
and without wood how was that fire to be p'roduced or supported? Pro¬ 
vidence has, however, so ordered it, that in this particular the sea supplies 
the defects of the land. In wandering along the beach they collected 
plenty of wood, which had been driven ashore by the waves. It consisted 


THE LOST RUSSIAN SAILORS. 


3<n 

at first of the wrecks of ships, and afterward of whole trees with their 
roots, the produce of some more hospitable, but to them unknown, country. 

During the first year of their exile, nothing proved of more essential 
service to these unfortunate men, than some boards they found on the 
beach, having a long iron hook, some nails about five or six inches in 
length and proportionably thick, together with other pieces of old iron 
fixed in them, the melancholy relics of some vessels cast away in those 
remote parts. These were thrown on shore by the waves, at a time when 
the want of powder gave our men reason to apprehend that they must 
fall a prey to hunger, as they had nearly consumed the reindeer they 
had killed. This circumstance was succeeded by another equally fortunate; 
they found on the shore the root of a fir-tree, which nearly approached 
to the figure of a bow. 

As necessity has ever been the mother of invention, so, with the help 
of a knife, they soon converted this root into a good bow; but they still 
wanted a string and arrows. Not knowing how to procure these at present, 
they resolved upon making a couple of lances to defend themselves 
against the white bears, the attacks of which animals, by far the most 
ferocious of their kind, they had great reason to dread. Finding they 
could neither make the heads of their lances, nor of their arrows, without 
the help of a hammer, they contrived to form the large iron hook men¬ 
tioned above into one, by heating it, and widening a whole it happened 
to have about its middle, with the assistance of one of the largest nails. 
This received the handle, and a round knob at one end of the hook served 
for the face of the hammer. A large stone supplied the place of the 
anvil, and tongs were formed of a couple of reindeer’s horns. With 
these tools they made two spear-heads, and after polishing and sharpening 
them on stones, they tied them as fast as possible with thongs of reindeer 
skin, to sticks about the thickness of a man’s arm, which they got from 
some branches of trees that had been cast on shore. Thus equipped 
with spears, they resolved to attack a white bear; and after a most dan¬ 
gerous encounter, they killed the formidable creature, and thus obtained 
a fresh supply of provisions. The flesh of this animal they relished ex¬ 
ceedingly, and they thought it much resembled beef in flavor. They 
perceived, with great pleasure, that the tendons might, with little or no 
trouble, be divided into filaments as fine as they pleased. This was, 
perhaps, the most fortunate discovery these men could have made; for 
beside other advantages, they were thus furnished with strings for their bow. 

The success our unfortunate islanders had experienced in making the 
spears, and the great utility of the latter, encouraged them to proceed, 
and to forge some pieces of iron into heads of arrows of the same shape, 
though somewhat smaller than those of the spears. Having ground and 
sharpened these like the former, they tied them with the sinews of the 
white bears to pieces of fir, to which, by means of sinews, also of the 
white bear, they fastened feathers of sea-fowl, and thus became possessed 
of a complete bow and arrows. Their ingenuity in this respect was 
crowned with success far beyond their expectation; for, during the 
time of their continuance upon the island, they killed with these arrows 
no less than 250 reindeer, beside a great number of blue and white foxes. 
The flesh of these animals served them also for food, and their skins for 
clothing, and other necessary preservatives against the intense cold of 
a climate so near the pole. 

They, however, killed only ten white bears in all, and these not without 
the utmost danger; for these animals being prodigiously strong, defended 


THE LOST RUSSIAN SAILORS. 


344 

themselves with astonishing vigor and fury. The first they attacked 
designedly, but the other nine they killed in their own defense; for some 
of these creatures even ventured to enter the outer room of their hut in 
order to devour them. All the bears did not, it is true, show an equal 
degree of fury; either because some were less pressed by hunger, or 
were naturally of a less ferocious disposition; for several which entered 
the hut immediately betook themselves to flight on the first attempt of the 
sailors to drive them away. A repetition of these formidable attacks 
threw the men into great terror and anxiety, as they were in almost per¬ 
petual danger of being devoured. The reindeer, the blue and white 
foxes, and the white bears, were the only food these wretched mariners 
tasted during their continuance in that dreary abode. 

In their excursions through the island, they had found, nearly in the 
middle of it, a slimy loam or a kind of clay. Out of this they found means 
to form a utensil to serve for a lamp, and they proposed to keep it con¬ 
stantly burning with the fat of the animals they might kill. To have been 
destitute of light, in a country where, in winter, darkness reigns for 
several months together, would have greatly increased their other calamities. 
Having, therefore, fashioned a kind of lamp, they filled it with some rein¬ 
deer’s fat, and stuck in it some linen twisted into the shape of a wick. 
But they had the mortification to find that, as soon as the fat melted, it 
not only soaked into the clay, but fairly ran through it on all sides. 
It was, therefore, necessary to contrive some method of preventing this 
inconvenience, which did not proceed from cracks, but from the substance 
of which the lamp was made being too porous. They made another one, 
dried it thoroughly in the air, then heated it red-hot, and afterward 
quenched it in their kettle, in which they had boiled down a quantity of 
flour to the consistence of starch. The lamp being then dried and filled 
with melted fat, they now found, to their great joy, that it did not leak. 
But, for greater security, they dipped linen rags in their paste, and with 
them covered it all over on the outside. Having succeeded in this attempt, 
they immediately made another lamp for fear of an accident, that at all 
events they might not be destitute of a light; upon which they determined 
to reserve the remainder of their flour for similar purposes. 

As they had carefully collected whatever happened to be cast on shore 
to supply themselves with fuel, they had found among the wrecks of 
vessels some cordage and a small quantity of oakum, which served them 
to make wicks for their lamp. When these stores began to fail, their 
shirts and trowsers were employed to make good the deficiency. By these 
means they kept their lamp burning, without intermission, from the day 
they first made it, which was soon after their arrival on the island, until 
that of their embarkation for their native country. 

The necessity of converting the most essential parts of their clothing, 
such as their shirts and drawers, to the use above specified, exposed them 
the more to the rigor of the climate. They also found themselves in 
want of shoes, boots, and other articles of dress; and as winter was 
approaching, they were again obliged to have recourse to that ingenuity 
which necessity suggests, and which seldom fails in the trying hour of 
distress. 

They had abundance of skins of foxes and reindeer, that had hitherto 
served them for bedding, and which they now thought of employing to some 
more essential service, but they were at a loss how to tan them. After 
some deliberation, they resolved to adopt the following method: They 
soaked the skins for several days in fresh water, till they could pull off 


THE LOST RUSSIAN SAILORS. 


345 

the hair pretty easily; they then rubbed the wet skin with their hands 
till it was nearly dry, when they spread some melted reindeer fat over 
it, and again rubbed it well. By this process the leather was rendered 
soft, pliant and supple, and proper for every purpose for which they 
wanted to employ it. Those skins that were designed for furs, they 
soaked only one day to prepare them for being wrought, and then proceeded 
in the manner before mentioned, excepting only that they did not remove 
the hair. Thus they soon provided themselves with the necessary 
materials for all the parts of dress they wanted. 

They made a curious needle out of a piece of wire; and the sinews 
of the bear and reindeer, which they split into several threads, served 
them to sew with. 

Excepting the uneasiness which generally accompanies an involuntary 
solitude, these people having thus, by their ingenuity, so far overcome 
their wants, might have had reason to be contented with what Providence 
had done for them in their distressful situation. But that melancholy 
reflection, to which each of these forlorn persons could not help giving 
way, that perhaps he might survive his companions, and then perish for 
want of subsistence, or become a prey to the wild beast, incessantly 
disturbed their minds. The mate, Alexis Himkof, more particularly 
suffered: having left a wife and three children behind, he was deeply 
afflicted at his separation from them. He declared, after his return, that 
they were constantly in his mind, and that the thought of never more 
seeing them rendered him very unhappy. 

When our four mariners had passed nearly six years in this dreary 
place, Feodor Weregin, who had from the first been in a languid condition, 
died, after suffering excruciating pains during the latter part of his life. 
Though they were relieved by that event from the trouble of attending 
him, and the pain of witnessing without being able to alleviate his misery, 
yet his death affected them not a little. They saw their numbers dimi¬ 
nished, and each of the survivors wished to be the next to follow him. 

As he died in winter, they dug a grave in the snow as deep as they 
could, in which they laid the corpse, and then covered it to the best of 
their power, that the white bears might not get at it. The melancholy 
reflections occasioned by the death of their comrade were still fresh in 
their minds, and each expected to pay this last duty to his remaining 
companions in misfortune, or to receive it from them, when, on the fifteenth 
of August, 1749, a Russian ship unexpectedly appeared in sight. 

The vessel belonged to a trader, who had come with it to Archangel, 
intending that it should winter in Nova Zembla, but, fortunately for our 
poor exiles, the director of the whale-fishery proposed to the merchant to 
let his vessel winter at West Spitzbergen, to which, after many objections, 
he at length agreed. 

The contrary winds they met with on their passage made it impossible 
for them to reach the place of their destination. The vessel was driven 
toward East Spitzbergen, directly opposite to the residence of our mari 
ners, who, as soon as they perceived her, hastened to light fires upon the 
hills nearest their habitation, and then ran to the beach, waving a flag made 
of reindeer’s skin, fastened to a pole. The people on board, perceiving 
these signals, concluded that there were men upon the island, who im¬ 
plored their assistance, and therefore came to an anchor near the shore. 
It would be in vain to attempt to describe the joy of these poor people, 
at seeing the moment of their deliverance so near. They soon agreed 
with the master of the ship to work for him during the voyage, and to 


THE LOST RUSSIAN SAILORS. 


346 

pay him eighty rubels on their arrival, for taking them on board with all 
their riches, which consisted of fifty pud or 2000 pounds weight of rein¬ 
deer fat; beside many hides of those animals, skins of blue and white 
foxes, and those of the ten white bears they had killed. They took care 
not to forget their bow and arrows, their spears, their knife and ax, which 
were almost worn out, their awls and their needles, which they carefully 
kept in a bone-box, very ingeniously made with their knife only; and in 
short, everything they possessed. 

Our adventurers arrived safe at Archangel on the twenty-eighth of 
September, 1749, having spent six years and three months in their dreary 
solitude. The moment of their landing was near proving fatal to the 
loving and beloved wife of Alexis Himkof, who being present when the 
vessel came into port, immediately knew her husband, and ran with such 
eagerness to his embraces, that she slipped into the water, and very 
narrowly escaped being drowned. 

All three on their arrival were strong and healthy; but having lived so 
long without bread, they could not reconcile themselves to the use of it, 
and complained that it filled them with wind; nor could they bear any 
spiritous liquors, and therefore drank nothing but water. 


LOSS OF THE RUSSIAN SHIP ST. PETER, 

On the coast of Beerings ’ Island , in the Sea of Kamtschatka , and 
subsequent distresses of the Crew. 

The Russians, though of all the European nations the most interested 
in making discoveries in the north, were not, however, roused to any 
undertaking of that nature till long after the attempts of the English to 
discover a north-west passage to China and India. The Czar Peter, was 
the first to project an expedition for that purpose, and himself drew up 
the instructions for those who were to conduct it. 

The celebrated Beerings, a native of Denmark, but who had served 
ever since 1707 in the Russian navy, was appointed to head this expedition. 
He was an officer who to extensive knowledge united fortitude and great 
experience. His lieutenants were a German, named Martin Spanberg, 
and Tschirikoff, a Russian. Beerings and his officers spent almost five 
years in making the necessary preparations and in the voyage itself. 

Jn 1727 they landed in Kamtschatka, surveyed the coast, and wintered 
in that country. The ensuing year they discovered the Island of St. 
Lawrence, and three smaller ones not far from the east coast of Asia. 
The approach of winter and the fear of being blocked up by the ice, 
obliged Beerings to think of returning; and on the eighteenth of Sep¬ 
tember he again reached the river of Kamtschatka. They quitted a 
second time the inhospitable coast of that country on the fifth of June, 
1729, but the wind blew from E. N. E., with such violence that they could 
not get out farther than sixty-eight leagues from it. As they found no 
land in that space, they altered their course, doubled the southermost 
Cape of Kamtschatka, and cast anchor at Ochotzk. From that place 
Beerings traveled over land to Irkutzk in Siberia, and proceeded to 
Petersburgh, where he arrived on the first of March, 1730. 

On his return Beerings declared that, in the course of his navigation, 
being in the latitude of between 50 and 60 degrees, he had observed 



THE LOST RUSSIAN SAILORS. 


347 

signs which seemed to indicate that there was some coast or land toward 
the east. This declaration was confirmed by the testimony of his 
lieutenants Spanberg and Tschirikoff, and they proposed a second ex¬ 
pedition to Kamtschatka, to explore the regions which separated the 
Asiatic continent from the north of America. The Russian Government, 
sensible of the importance of the project, acquiesced in the proposal of 
Beerings, who was appointed to conduct the new enterprise, with the 
rank of commodore, while his two lieutenants were nominated captains 
under him. 

Commodore Beerings went on board the St. Peter, and Captain Tschi- 
rikolf took the command of the St. Paul. Two other vessels carried the 
provisions, and another had on board two academicians, sent out by the 
Russian Academy of Sciences, and their baggage. A few days previous 
to their departure, Beerings called a council, in which it was resolved, 
first to go in quest of the land laid down in the chart as having been seen 
by John de Gama. On the fourth of June, 1741, the two captains set 
sail, steering the direction which had been agreed upon till the twelfth 
of that month, when, being in the latitude of forty-six degrees, they were 
convinced that Gama’s land did not exist, as they had met with none 
during that run. They immediately put the ships about, and stood to the 
northward, to the fifteenth degree, without making any discovery. They 
then agreed to steer eastward for the American continent, but on the 
twentieth the ships were separated by a violent storm, succeeded by a 
thick fog. 

Nothing of consequence occurred till the eighteenth of July, when 
Beerings, still hoping to meet with the St. Paul, and continuing to steer 
to the northward, perceived the continent of America. Having cast 
anchor, the commodore sent Chitroff, the master, with a few armed men, 
to survey the coast, while another shallop was dispatched in quest of 
water. Steller went on board the latter, and in an island on which they 
landed he found several empty huts, whence it was conjectured that the 
natives of the continent visited it for the purpose of fishing. These huts 
were of wood, wainscoted with planks well joined together. They here 
found a box of poplar wood, a hollow ball of earth containing a small 
pebble, as if to serve for a child’s plaything, and a whetstone, on which 
were visible the marks of copper knives that had recently been whetted 
on it. 

Steller made several observations in the huts. He found, among other 
things, a cellar containing smoked salmon and a sweet herb, ready dressed 
for eating, in the same manner as vegetables are prepared in Kamtschatka. 
There were likewise cords, grindstones, and utensils of various kinds. Hav¬ 
ing approached a place where the savages had been dining, they betook 
themselves to flight as soon as they perceived him. He there found a dart, 
and an instrument for producing fire, of the same form as those made use 
of in Kamtschatka. It consists of a board perforated in several places; 
the end of a stick being put into one of these holes, the other extremity 
is turned backward and forward between the palms of the hands till, with 
the rapidity of the motion, the board takes fire, on which the sparks are 
received upon some matter that is easily inflamed. 

The watering party related that they had passed two places where fires 
appeared to have been recently made, that they had observed wood which 
had been cut, and the track of human feet in the grass. They had like¬ 
wise seen five red foxes, which showed no shyness or timidity on meeting 
them. They carried nothing with them from the huts but a few smoked 


THE LOST RUSSIAN SAILORS. 


348 

fish resembling carp, and which proved very good eating. To convince 
the natives that they had nothing to fear from the strangers who had 
landed on their coast, the commodore sent on shore a few presents for 
them, consisting of a piece of green cloth, two iron pots, two knives, 
twenty gross of glass beads, and a pound of tobacco, which he presumed 
would prove extremely acceptable to the savages. 

The Russians now stood out to sea, and having been several days 
without seeing land, they, on the thirtieth of July discovered an island, 
to which, from the thickness of the weather, they gave the name of Foggy 
Island. The whole month of August was spent in standing off and on; 
in the meantime the crew began to be attacked with scurvy, and the 
commodore himself was in a worse situation than any other. Fresh water 
beginning to run short, the Russians, on the twenty-ninth of August, 
stood to the north, and soon discovered the continent. The coast in this 
part is extremely steep, and lined with a multitude of islands, among 
which the St. Peter came to an anchor. On the thirtieth the pilot, Andrew 
Hasselberg, was sent to one of the largest of these islands in quest of 
fresh water. He soon returned with two specimens, taken out of different 
lakes, which were more or less salt. But, as there was no time to be lost, 
it was judged prudent to take in a quantity of this water rather than be 
left completely without, as it would serve for cooking, and thus the 
remaining fresh water might be made to last till they could procure a 
supply. All the empty casks were accordingly filled with it. To the 
use of this water Steller attributed the redoubled attacks of the scurvy, 
which at length proved fatal to a great part of the crew. 

In the morning the Russians heard the cries of men on one of the 
islands, and likewise saw a fire there. Soon afterward, two savages, 
each in a canoe resembling those of the Greenlanders, approached the 
ship within a certain distance. By their words and gestures they invited 
the Russians to land, and the latter, by signs and presents which they 
threw toward them, endeavored, but without success, to entice them into 
the ship. After looking some time at the Russians, they returned to the 
island. 

Beerings and his officers resolved to venture to land, and for this 
purpose the great shallop was hoisted overboard. Lieutenant Waxel, 
accompanied by Steller and nine men well armed, went into the boat, 
and proceeded toward the island. The savages, to the number of nine, 
appeared on the shore, and were invited by signs to come to the shallop. 
But, as they could neither be tempted by the signs that were made, nor 
the presents which were offered them, and still continued to invite the 
Russians to land, Waxel put on shore three men, among whom was a 
Tschutski or Koriak interpreter. They moored the shallop to one of the 
rocks, as they had been ordered. 

These men were kindly received by the savages, but being unable to 
understand each other, they were obliged to converse by signs. The 
latter, with a view to regale the Russians, presented them with whale’s 
flesh, which was the only provisions they had with them. It appeared 
that their residence here was only for the purpose of catching whales, 
for on the shore was observed as many boats as men, but no hut, and not 
a woman among them; so that, probably they had no permanent habitation 
but on the continent. They had neither arrows nor any other arms that 
could give umbrage to the Russians, and at length one of them had the 
courage to go into the boat to Waxel. He appeared to be the oldest person, 
and the chief of the party. Waxel presented him with a glass of brandy. 


THE LOST RUSSIAN SAILORS. 


349 

but that liquor appeared equally disagreeable and strange to him. After 
spitting it out of his mouth, he began to cry out, as if complaining to his 
countrymen that the Russians were using him ill. It was found impos¬ 
sible to appease him; needles, glass beads, an iron pot, and pipes, were 
ofiered him, but he refused them all. lie immediately returned to the 
island, and Waxel did not judge it prudent to detain him any longer. At 
the same time he called off the three men who had been put on shore. 

The savages at first showed a disposition to detain them all. At length 
they suffered two of the Russians to return, but kept the interpreter. 
Some of them even seized the cable by which the shallop was moored, 
thinking no doubt she was as easily managed as one of their canoes, or 
hoping to dash her to pieces against the rocks. To prevent their design, 
Waxel cut the cable. The interpreter meanwhile entreated not to be 
left behind. The savages disregarding all the signs that were made them 
to let him go, Waxel ordered two muskets to be fired, with a view to 
frighten them only. The success answered his expectation; the report, 
re-echoed by a neighboring mountain, terrified them to such a degree 
that they fell down on the ground, and the interpreter immediately made 
his escape. The savages soon recovered from their panic, and, by their 
cries and gestures, appeared highly irritated. Waxel did not think proper 
to remain there any longer, as the night was coming on, the sea grew 
very rough, and the vessel was at the distance of a mile and a half. 

Leaving the island, the Russians steered to the south, in order to get 
off the coast. From this time till far in the autumn, the wind scarcely 
varied, excepting between W. S. W. and W. N. W. This was a great 
obstacle to the speedy return of the ship. Beside this, the weather was 
almost always foggy, so that they were sometimes two or three weeks 
without seeing either sun or stars, and, consequently, without being able 
to take the altitude or correct their reckoning. It is easy to conceive 
the inquietude which they must have experienced, wandering in such 
uncertainty in an unknown sea. “ I know not (says one of the officers) 
if there be a situation in the world more disagreeable than that of navi¬ 
gating an unknown sea. I speak from experience, and I can say with 
truth, that during the five months of our voyage I had very few hours of 
tranquil sleep, being incessantly involved in danger and anxiety in regions 
heretofore unknown.” 

The crew struggled with contrary winds and tempests till the twenty- 
fourth of September, when they again came in sight of the land. A 
bris’k gale from the south rendering it dangerous for them to remain near 
the coast, they resolved to keep the ship to the wind, which soon turned to 
the west, increased to a violent storm, and drove the vessel very far to the 
south-west. This tempest continued seventeen days without intermission, 
and was so furious, that Andrew Hasselberg, the pilot, acknowledged 
that, during the forty years in which he had served at sea, in various parts 
of the world, he had never seen anything equal to it. They shortened 
sail as much as possible, that they might not be carried too far; but, not¬ 
withstanding this precaution,they lost much way till the twelfth of October, 
when the tempest abated. 

The disease which already prevailed among the crew became worse, 
and the scurvy extended its ravages more and more. A day seldom 
passed without a death, and scarcely men enough were left in health to 
navigate the vessel. In this melancholy situation they were undecided 
whether to return to Kamtschatka, or to seek some port in which they 
might winter on the American coast. The lateness of the season, the 


350 


THE LOST RUSSIAN SAILORS. 


want of fresh water, and the great distance from Petropawlowska, appeared 
to render the latter measure indispensable. In a council held on board, 
it was, however, resolved to attempt the former. 

They were, however, unable to discover the coast of Kamtschatka, 
and they had no hope of reaching any port in such an advanced season. 
The crew, exposed to the most intense cold and incessant rain, continued 
to labor without intermission. The scurvy had made such ravages that 
the man who guided the helm was obliged to be supported in his station 
by two of his comrades, who still possessed sufficient strength to keep 
their legs. When he became unable either to sit up or to steer, another, 
who was in a situation very little better, took his place. They durst not 
carry a press of sail, because, in case of necessity, there was no person 
to lower those which might be too much. The sails themselves were so 
worn out that the first gale would have torn them to pieces, and there 
were not hands sufficient to hoist the spare sails which they had taken 
out with them. 

The incessant rain, which had fallen till now, was succeeded by hail 
and snow. The nights grew longer and darker, and their dangers were 
consequently increased, because they every moment had reason to ap¬ 
prehend that the ship would strike. At the same time their fresh water 
was entirely consumed. The excessive labor became insupportable to 
the few hands who still remained in health, and when summoned to their 
duty, they declared themselves incapable of any farther exertions. They 
impatiently expected death, which appeared inevitable, to deliver them 
from their misery. 

During several days the vessel remained without a steersman, and as 
if motionless on the water; or if she had any movement she received it 
only from the impulse of the winds and waves, to which she was consigned. 
It would have been in vain to resort to vigorous measures with a crew 
driven to despair. In this extremity Waxel adopted a more prudent 
method, spoke with kindness to the seamen, exhorting them not to despair 
entirely of the assistance of the Almighty, and rather to make a last effort 
for their common deliverance, which was, perhaps, much nearer than they 
expected. With this kind of language he persuaded them to keep on 
deck and work the ship as long as they were able. 

Such was the dismal situation of the crew, when, on the fourth of 
November, they again began to sail westward, without knowing either in 
what latitude they were, or at what distance from Kamtschatka. They 
knew, however, that it was only by steering west, they could hope to reach 
that country. What was the joy of the Russians, when, about eight in 
the morning, they discovered land! 

At this so much wished for sight the seamen mustered up the little 
strength they had left. They endeavored to approach it, but it was still 
at a great distance, for they could only perceive the snow-covered summits 
of the mountains; and when they had come pretty near it, night arrived. 
The officers judged it prudent to stand off, in order not to risk the loss 
of the ship. The next morning the greatest part of the rigging on the 
starboard side of the vessel was found broken to pieces. Nothing more 
was necessary to render their misfortunes complete. 

Waxel having made his report of this new disaster to the commodore, 
received orders to assemble all the officers and to consult with them what 
was best to be done. A council was accordingly held. They considered 
the danger to which they were all exposed in a crazy ship which it was 
no longer possible to navigate. They knew that the cordage which 


THE LOST RUSSIAN SAILORS. 


351 

remained whole was as much worn as that which had broken, as the rigging 
was heard snapping every moment, and even during the time of their 
deliberation. The water diminished every day, and the sickness grew 
worse; they had before suffered from the rain, but they now felt much 
greater inconvenience from the cold, which, instead of becoming more 
moderate, grew every day more intense. They determined, in consequence 
of all these considerations, to disembark on the land which they had dis¬ 
covered, as their lives would at least be safer there, and probably they 
might find some method of getting the ship into a place of safety. 

The Russians, conformably to the decision of the council, steered for 
the land, but only under the small sails, on account of the weak condition 
of their masts. At five at night they came into twelve fathoms of water, 
where they cast anchor, and veered away three-fourths of the cable. At 
six the cable gave way, and the waves, which were of prodigious size, 
drove the ship against a rock, on which she twice struck, and yet the 
lead indicated five fathoms of water. At the same time the sea broke 
with such fury against the sides of the vessel that she shook to her very 
keel. A second anchor was thrown out, but the cable broke even before 
the anchor appeared to have taken hold. Fortunately the remaining one 
was not in readiness, otherwise, in this extremity, that also would have 
been thrown overboard, and thus they would have lost all their anchors. 
At the moment when they were busily employed in getting ready the 
third anchor, a prodigious sea took the ship and drove her clear off the 
rock. The Russians suddenly found themselves in calm water, and 
anchored in four fathoms and a half, and about three hundred fathoms 
from the shore. 

On the sixth of November, at one o’clock, Lieutenants Waxel and Steller 
went on shore, and found the land sterile, and covered with snow. A 
stream which issued from the mountains and fell into the sea not far 
from the spot, was not yet frozen; ils water was limpid and very good. 
No trees were to be seen,nor even any brushwood for fuel; the sea had, 
however, thrown some upon the beach, but being concealed beneath the 
snow, it could not easily be found. This account was not calculated to 
produce the most favorable impressions. Where were they to procure 
the materials necessary for constructing habitations? where could the 
sick be placed in comfort? and how could they be preserved from the cold? 
Man, however, should never abandon himself to despair; for the more 
forlorn his situation, the more ingenious is he rendered by necessity. 
Between the sand-hills, bordering the stream above mentioned, were holes 
of considerable depth; these it was proposed to clean out at the bottom, 
to cover them with sails, and thus take shelter in them till they could 
collect a sufficient quantity of drift-wood to erect huts. In the evening 
Waxel and Steller returned to the ship to make their report to the 
commodore. 

Immediately upon their return a council was called, and it was resolved 
to send on shore, the next day, all those of the crew who were still in 
health, to prepare some of the holes for the reception of the sick. This 
being done, on the eighth of November the weakest were carried on 
shore. Some expired as soon as they were exposed to the air, even 
before they reached the deck, others upon deck, or in the boat, and 
several after they had reached the land. The country swarmed witn a 
species of foxes, called in the Russian language Pestzi. Steller has 
given a very interesting account of these animals, which the reader will 
find introduced at the conclusion of this article, in order to prevent the 


THE LOST RUSSIAN SAILORS. 


352 

interruption of the narrative. On the ninth of November the commodore, 
well covered against the external air, was carried on shore by four men, 
on a kind of litter formed of two poles crossed with cords. A separate 
hole had been prepared for his reception. The business of removing 
the sick continued every day, and not a day passed without several of 
them dying. None of those who had kept their beds on board the ship 
recovered; they were principally those who, out of indifference to life, 
or rather pusillanimity, had suffered the disease to get the upper hand. 

The sea-scurvy begins with extreme lassitude, which seizes the whole 
body, renders the man indolent, disgusts him with everything, entirely 
dejects his spirits, and gradually forms a kind of asthma, which manifests 
itself on the slightest movement. It usually happens that the patient 
prefers lying down to walking, and in this case he is inevitably lost. All 
the members are soon afflicted with acute pains, the legs swell, the com¬ 
plexion becomes yellow, the body is covered with livid spots, the mouth 
and gums bleed, and teeth grow loose. The patient then feels no incli¬ 
nation to stir, and it is indifferent to him whether he lives or dies. These 
different stages of the disease and their effects were observed on board. 
It was likewise remarked that some of the sick were seized with a panic, 
and were startled at the least noise, and at every call that was given in 
the ship. Others ate with a very hearty appetite, and did not imagine 
themselves in danger. The latter no sooner heard the order given for 
the removal of the sick, than they quitted their hammocks and dressed 
themselves, not doubting but that they should speedily recover. But 
coming up from below, saturated with humidity, and out of a corrupted 
atmosphere, the fresh air which they inhaled on deck soon put a period 
to their lives. 

Those only recovered who were not so far overcome by the disease as 
to be obliged continually to keep their beds, who remained as long as 
possible on their legs, and in motion. It was owing to their vivacity and 
their natural gayety that they were not dejected like the others. A man 
of this disposition served at the same time for an example, and encouraged 
by his conversation those who were in the same condition. The good 
effects of exercise were particularly apparent in the officers, who were 
constantly employed in giving orders, and obliged to be on deck the 
greatest part of the time, to keep an eye on what passed. They were 
always in action, and could not lose their spirits, for they had Steller with 
them. Steller was a physician of the soul as well as of the body; cheer¬ 
fulness was his constant companion, and he communicated it to all around 
him. Among the officers, the commodore was the only person who sunk 
beneath the disease; his age and his constitution rendered him more 
disposed to rest than to activity. He at length became so suspicious, and 
was so impressed with the idea that every one was his enemy, that at last 
even Steller, whom he had before regarded as his best friend, durst not 
appear in his presence. 

Waxel and Chitroff remained in tolerable health as long as they were 
at sea. They remained in the ship till the last, resolving that all the 
crew should be put on shore before they repaired thither themselves. 
They likewise had better accommodations on board. This situation, 
however, had nearly proved fatal to them, either because they no longer 
had so much exercise, or were exposed to the noxious vapors which 
ascended from the hold. In a few days they were taken so ill that they 
were obliged to be carried from the ship to the shore, and with proper 
precautions on their removal into the air, they both recovered. 


THE LOST RUSSIAN SAILORS. 


353 

Bcerings died the eighth of December, 1741, and the island was called 
utter his name. It may almost be said that he was buried alive. Having 
been carried on shore with the greatest precaution, he was placed in the 
largest and least incommodious hole, and a covering was carefully erected 
over him in the form of a tent. The sand soon began to fall down from 
the sides of the hole in which he lay, and every moment covered his feet. 
It was immediately removed by those who attended him; but, at last, he 
would not suffer it to be taken away, thinking he felt some warmth from 
it, the vital heat having already forsaken the other parts of his body. The 
sand gradually accumulated, till it covered him up to the belly; and when 
lie had expired, his people were obliged to dig him out, in order to give 
him a decent interment. 

A few days before the death of the commodore, the Russians had the 
misfortune to lose their vessel, the only resource capable of extricating 
them from their forlorn situation. She was at anchor, as we have seen 
above, and exposed to the violence of a tempestuous sea, when, in the 
night, between the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth, a furious storm arose, 
the cable parted, and the vessel was driven ashore, very near the dens 
of the Russians. She was found in the morning buried in the sand to 
the depth of eight or ten feet. Upon inspection, the keel and sides were 
found to be broken to pieces. The water, which entered the ship and 
ran off below, had washed away or spoiled the greatest part of the re¬ 
maining provisions, consisting of flour, oatmeal, and salt. 

Situated as the unfortunate mariners were, this loss was extremely 
afflicting: but appeared much less when they reflected that the vessel, 
though much damaged, had been thrown upon the sand at their feet, and 
not carried out to sea; they still entertained hopes that, even if she could 
not be got afloat again, they might with the materials build a bark capable 
of carrying them to Kamtschatka. 

The events which had occurred since their shipwreck had diverted 
the attention of the Russians from two important objects in their situation; 
in the first place, to take a survey of the country in which they had landed, 
and, in the second, to provide for their subsistence. After reconnoitering 
the island, they proceeded to examine the provision which had been saved 
from the ship. Having first deducted and stowed away eighteen hundred 
pounds of flour to serve them on their passage from the island to Kamt¬ 
schatka, the remainder was divided into equal portions. Though these 
were very scanty, and thirty of their number died during their stay on 
the island, yet they would not have been sufficient, but for the seasonable 
supply which the marine animals afforded. 

The first which served them for food were the otters. Their flesh 
was hard, but they were obliged to put up with it till they could procure 
some less disagreeable in its stead. After they had ceased to use them 
for food, the Russians killed a great number of these animals for the 
sake of their beautiful skins, nine hundred of which they collected during, 
their residence on the island. In the month of March the otters disap¬ 
peared, and were succeeded by another animal, called the sea-cat, and 
afterward by seals. Their flesh was exceedingly disgusting to the Russians, 
who fortunately, uow and then, surprised a young sea-lion. The latter 
tre excellent eating; but they never durst venture to attack them excepting; 
when asleep. 

The sea-cow likewise proved of great utility to the Russians. One of 
these animals which they took, weighed eight thousand pounds, and fur¬ 
nished them with food for a fortnight. Their flesh may be compared to 
23 


THE LOST RUSSIAN SAILORS. 


354 

beef, and the fat, with which it is covered to the depth of three or four 
inches, resembles that of pork. This they melted down and used instead 
of butter. They likewise salted a considerable quantity of the flesh and 
filled several casks, which they added to the provision already destined 
for their voyage to Kamtschatka. During their residence on the island 
two whales were likewise cast on shore, and these furnished them with 
an abundant supply when other marine animals failed. 

On the melting of the snow, about the end of March, 1742, the Rus¬ 
sians began to think seriously of their return. Being all assembled, to 
the number of forty-five, they took into consideration the means of 
returning to Kamtschatka. The state of perfect equality in which 
they had lived since their landing on the island produced a variety of 
opinions, which were warmly supported by those with whom they origi¬ 
nated. Waxel, to whom the command by right devolved, conducted 
himself under these circumstances with great art and prudence. Without 
giving offense to the authors of the different plans, he opposed them to 
each other, and destroyed them by means of a third, which he again 
overthrew by objections which appeared unanswerable. At length he and 
Chitroff, who acted in concert, proposed their opinion, which was to take 
the vessel to pieces, and to construct another of a smaller size, but suffi¬ 
ciently spacious to hold all the crew and the provisions. In discussing 
the business, they laid great stress on the consideration that all those who 
had suffered together would not be separated; that none would be left 
behind ; that if a new misfortune occurred, they would be together, and 
that none of them would be exempted from it. This opinion being unani¬ 
mously approved of, a paper was drawn up to the effect, and signed by 
all the crew. The favorable weather at the beginning of April permitted 
them to put it in execution. The whole month was employed in breaking 
up the ship, and the officers, by their diligence, set a laudable example 
to the rest. 

On the sixth of May they began to work upon their new vessel, which 
was forty feet in length and thirteen wide. She had but one mast and 
one deck, with a cabin at the stern, and a kitchen at the head. At the 
same time they likewise built a boat capable of holding nine or ten 
persons. 

The vessel being completed, was launched on the tenth of August, and 
named the St. Peter, after the ship from the remains of which she had 
been constructed. The balls and superfluous iron-work served for ballast. 
A calm, which continued six days, enabled them to fix the mast, rudder 
and sails, and to take on board the provisions. 

On the sixteenth they put to sea; and, with the help of oars, got clear 
of the rocks and shallows near the island. They then set their sails to 
take advantage of a breeze which sprung up. They had the satisfaction 
to find that their vessel was an excellent sailer, and might be managed 
with the greatest facility. On the eighteenth they were overtaken by a 
contrary wind, which blew with great violence at south-west. Being 
apprehensive of a tempest, they resolved to lighten the vessel, by throwing 
overboard part of their ballast. On the twenty-fifth they came in sight 
of Kamtschatka, and, on the twenty-seventh, came to an anchor in the 
harbor of Petropawlowska. It is scarcely possible to express the transports 
of the Russians when they again found themselves in the midst of comfort 
and abundance. 

After passing the winter at Petropawlowska, they again embarked in 
the month of May, and arrived at Ochotzk. Waxel repaired to Jakulsk. 


THE LOST RUSSIAN SAILORS. 


355 

where he resided during the winter. In October, 1744, he arrived at 
Jeniseisk, at which place he found Captain Tschirikoff, who soon after¬ 
ward received an order from the senate to repair to Petersburgh; on 
which Waxel succeeded him in the command of the crews of both vessels. 
With these he proceeded to the same city, where he arrived in the month 
of January, 1749, which may be considered as the conclusion of the 
second expedition to Kamtschatka, after a period of sixteen years from 
its commencement. 

The Arctic fox, of which the Russians found such numbers in Beerings’ 
Island, is of a bluish gray color. The hair is very thick, long and soft, 
the nose sharp, and the ears short, and almost hid in the fur. The tail 
is shorter, but more bushy than that of the common fox. The following 
is the account given by Steller of the habits and manners of this extra¬ 
ordinary animal. 

u During my unfortunate abode on Beerings’ Island I had opportunities 
more than enough of studying the nature of this animal, which far ex¬ 
ceeds the common fox in impudence, cunning, and roguery. 

“ They forced themselves into our habitations by night as well as by 
day, stealing all that they could carry off; even things that were of no 
use to them, such as knives, sticks, and clothes. They were so incon¬ 
ceivably ingenious as to roll down our casks of provisions, several pounds 
in weight, and then steal the meat out of them so ably, that at first we 
could not bring ourselves to ascribe the theft to them. As we have 
stripped an animal of its skin, it has often happened that we could not 
avoid stabbing two or three foxes, from their rapacity in taking the flesh 
out of our hands. 

“ If we buried it ever so carefully, and even added stones to the weight 
of earth that was upon it, they not only found it out, but with their 
shoulders shoved away the stones, lying under them and helping one 
another with all their might. If, in order to secure it, we put an animal 
on the top of a high post in the air, they either dug up the earth at the 
bottom, and thus tumbled the whole down, or one of them clambered 
up, and with incredible artifice and dexterity threw down what was 
upon it. 

u They watched all our motions, and accompanied us in whatever we 
were about to do. If the sea threw up an animal of any kind, they 
devoured it before we could get up to rescue it from them; if they could 
not consume the whole of it at once, they dragged it in portions to the 
mountains, where they buried it under stones before our eyes, running 
to and fro as long as anything remained to be conveyed away. While 
this was doing others stood on guard and watched us. If they saw any¬ 
thing coming at a distance, the whole troop would combine at once and 
begin digging all together in the sand, till a beaver or sea-bear would be 
so completely buried under the surface that not a trace of it could be 
seen. In the night, when we were asleep, they came and pulled off our 
nightcaps, and stole our clothes from under our heads, with the beaver 
coverings and the skins we lay upon. In consequence of this we always 
slept with our clubs in our hands, so that if they awoke us we might drive 
them away or knock them down. 

When we made a halt to rest by the way, they gathered around us 
and played a thousand tricks in our view, and when we sat still they 
approached so near that they gnawed the thongs of our shoes. If we lay 
down, as intending to sleep, they came and smelt at our noses, to try 
whether we were dead or alive; if we held our breath they gave us such 


THE LOST RUSSIAN SAILORS. 


356 

a tug by the nose as if they would bite it off. On our first arrival they 
bit off the toes, fingers, and noses of the dead while we were preparing 
the grave, and thronged in such a manner about the infirm and sick, that 
it was with difficulty we could keep them oft’ 

“ Every morning we saw these audacious animals patrolling about 
among the sea-lions and sea-bears lying on the strand, smelling at such 
as were asleep, to discover whether some one of them might not be dead; 
if that happened to be the case, they proceeded to dissect him imme¬ 
diately, and soon afterward all were at work in dragging the parts away: 
because the sea-lions in their sleep overlay their young, they every morning 
examined, as if conscious of this circumstance, the whole herd of them, 
one by one, and immediately dragged away the dead cubs from their 
dams. 

“ As they would not suffer us to be at rest either by night or day, 
we became so exasperated at them that we killed young and old, and 
plagued them in every way we could devise. When we awoke in the 
morning there always lay two or three that had been knocked on the 
head in the night; and I can safely affirm that during my stay in the 
island I killed above two hundred of these animals with my own hands. 
On the third day after my arrival I knocked down upward of seventy of 
them with a club, within the space of three hours, and made a covering 
to my hut of their skins. They were so ravenous, that with one hand 
we could hold to them a piece of flesh, and with a stick or ax in the 
other could knock them on the head. 

“From all the circumstances that occurred during our stay, it was 
evident that these animals could never before have been acquainted with 
mankind, and that the dread of man is not innate in brutes, but must be 
grounded on long experience.” 


EXPERIENCES 


OF A 

BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER, 

AS GIVEN BT CAPTAIN BASIL HALL, OF THE 

ROYAL NAVY. 


Various circumstances conspired to give me, very early in life, what 
is called a taste for the sea. In the first place, I came into the world 
in the midst of a heavy gale of wind; when such was the violence of 
the storm, and the beating of the rain, that there were some thoughts 
of removing the whole party to a less rickety corner of the old mansion, 
which shook from top to bottom. So strong, indeed, was the impression 
made on the imagination of those present, by the roaring of the surf, 
close at hand, the whistling of the wind in the drenched forest, and the 
obvious rocking of the house, under the heavy gusts of that memorable 
gale, that, as soon as I was old enough to understand anything at all, the 
association between the events of my future life, and those of my birth- 
night, began to be sown in my mind. Thus, long before I shipped a 
pair of trowsers, I felt that a salt-water destiny was to be mine; and as 
everybody encouraged me to cherish these early predilections for the 
sea, I grew up with the certainty of becoming a sailor. 

It is clear enough that no boy, instruct him as we will, can form 
correct ideas of what he is likely to meet with in any profession. The 
incipient difficulties and discomforts of all professions are, probably, 
pretty much alike; and the boy who has not energy enough to set his 
face resolutely against the early discouragements of any particular call¬ 
ing, will, in all probability, be successful in no other. It is, however, 
so great an advantage to have a young person’s own feelings, and his 
point of honor heartily engaged in the cause in which he has embarked, 
that, if circumstances render such a thing at all expedient, or not quite 
unreasonable, the choice of a profession may often be conceded with 
advantage. But such free choice ought to be afterward burdened, with 
a positive interdict against change. In the case of a sea life, this 
appears to be quite indispensable; for the contrast is so striking, in most 
cases, between the comforts of home and the discomforts of a ship—to 
say nothing of rough fare, hard work, sea-sickness, and strict discipline— 
that, if an opening be constantly presented for escape, few youngsters 
will have resolution enough to bear up against those trials to which they 
must be exposed, and which they ought to hold themselves prepared to 
meet with cheerfulness. 

Perhaps the naval profession owes a good deal of its peculiar char¬ 
acter to these very disadvantages, as they are called; and though we 
may often regret to see young men, of good abilities, dropping out of 
the navy, who, if they had only cast on the right tack, might have done 

( 357 ) 



EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 


358 

the service and themselves much honor—yet there is no denying that 
their more vigorous minded and sterner framed companions, whom they 
leave afloat, are, upon the whole, better fitted to make useful public 
servants. 

In many other professions, it is possible to calculate beforehand, with 
more or less precision, the degree and kind of work which a young man 
is likely to be called upon to perform; but there is peculiar difficulty in 
coming to any just conclusion upon these points, even in a vague way, 
in the life of a sailor. His range of duties includes the whole world; 
he may be lost in the wilderness of a three-decker, or be wedged into a 
cock-boat; he may be fried in Jamaica, or frozen in Spitzbergen; he 
may be cruising, or be in action during six days of the week, in the 
midst of a fleet, and flounder in solitude on the seventh; or he may 
waste his years in peaceful idleness, the most fatal to subordination; or 
be employed on the home station, and hear from his friends every day; 
or he may be fifteen months, as I have been, at a time, without getting a 
letter, or seeing a newspaper. He may have an easy-going commander, 
which is a very great evil; or his captain may be one of those tight 
hands, who, to use the slang of the cock-pit, keeps every one on board 
u under the fear of the Lord and a broomstick.” In short, a man may go 
to sea for twenty years, and find no two men, and hardly two days alike. 

All this, which is delightful to some minds, and productive in them of 
every kind of resource, is utterly distracting, and very often ruinous to 
others. Weak frames generally sink under its severity; and weak minds 
become confused with its complication, and the intensity of its action. 
But, on the other hand, the variety of its objects is so boundless, that if 
a young man has only strength of body, to endure the wear and tear of 
watching, and other inevitable fatigues, and has also strength of char¬ 
acter enough to persevere, in the certainty of openings occurring, sooner 
or later, by which his talents or his industry may find profitable employ¬ 
ment, there can be little doubt that the profession of a sailor might be 
made suitable to most of those who, on entering it, are positively cut off 
from retreat. 

I must own that, in spite of all my enthusiasm, when the actual time 
came for fairly leaving friends and home, and plunging quite alone and 
irrevocably into a new life, I felt a degree of anxiety and distrust of 
myself, which, as these feelings were quite strange, I scarcely knew 
how to manage. I had been allowed to choose my own profession, it is 
true, and was always eager to be off; yet I almost wished, when the 
actual moment arrived, that I had not been taken at my word. I can 
well remember my heart sunk within me, and 1 felt pretty much as if I 
were on the verge of death, when the carriage that was to convey me 
away drove up to the door. 

I remember, as well as if the incidents had occurred yesterday, most 
of the details which are stated in the following letter, written only the 
day after I was left to my fate—among strangers—in the unknown world 
of a man-of-war. I certainly was far from happy, and might easily have 
made my friends wretched by selecting chiefly what was disagreeable. 

I took a different course. 

66 H. M. Ship Leander, June 12, 1802. 

“Dear Father: —After you left us, I went down into the mess- 
room; it is a place about twenty feet long, with a table in the middle of 
it, and wooden seats, upon which we sit. When I came down, there 


EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 


359 

were a great many cups and saucers upon the table. A man came in 
and poured hot water into the teapot. There are about fourteen of us 
mess at the same time. We were very merry in this dark hole, where 
we had only two candles. 

“ We come down here, and sit when we like; and at other times go 
upon deck. At about ten o’clock we had supper upon bread and cheese, 
and a kind of pudding, which we liked very much. Some time after 
this I went to a hammock, which was not my own, as mine was not 
ready, there not being enough of clues at it, but I will have it to-night. I 
got in at last. It was very queer to find myself swinging about in this 
uncouth manner, for there was only about a foot of space between my 
face and the roof; so, of course, I broke my head a great many times 
on the different posts in the cock-pit, where all the midshipmen sleep. 
After having got in, you may be sure I did not sleep very well, when all 
the people were making such a noise, going to bed in the dark, and the 
ship in such confusion. 

u I fell asleep at last, but was always disturbed by the quarter-master 
coming down to awake the midshipmen who were to be on guard during 
the night. He comes up to their bedsides and calls them; so I, not 
being accustomed to it, was always awaked too. I had some sleep, 
however, but early in the morning was again roused up by the men 
beginning to work. 

u There is a large hole which comes down from the decks, all the 
way through to the hold, where they let down the casks. The foot of 
the hammock that I slept in was just at the hole, so I saw the casks all 
coming down close by me. I got up at half past seven, and went into 
the berth, (our mess-room,) and we were all waiting for breakfast till 
eight, when the man who serves and brings in the dishes for the mess 
came down in a terrible passion, saying that as he was boiling the kettle 
at the stove, the master-at-arms had thrown water upon the fire and put 
it out. All this was because the powder was coming on board. So we 
had to want our breakfast for once. But we had a piece of bread and 
butter; and as we were eating it, the master-at-arms came down, and 
said that our candles were to be taken away; so we had to eat our dry 
meal in the dark.” 

midshipmens’ peanks. 

During the long winters of our slothful discontent at Bermuda, to 
which island our ship had been sent, caused by the Peace of Amiens, 
the grand resource, both of the idle and busy, among all classes 
of the Leander’s officers, was shooting. The midshipmen were gener¬ 
ally obliged to content themselves with knocking down the* blue and red 
birds with the ship’s pistols, charged with his majesty’s gun-powder, 
and, for want of small shot, with slugs formed by cutting up his majesty’s 
musket-bullets. The officers aimed at higher game, and were, of course, 
better provided with guns and ammunition. Several of these gentlemen 
had brought from England some fine dogs—high-bred pointers; while 
the middies, also, not to be outdone, must needs have a dog of their own: 
they recked very little of what breed; but some sort of animal they said 
they must have. 

I forget how we procured the strange-looking beast whose services 
we contrived to engage; but, having once obtained him, we were not 
slow in giving him our best affections. It is true he was as ugly as any¬ 
thing could possibly be. His color was a dirty, reddish yellow; and 


EXPERIENCES OP A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 


360 

while a part of his hair twisted itself up in curls, a part hung down, 
quite straight, almost to the ground. He was utterly useless for all the 
purposes of real sport, but quite good enough to furnish the mids with 
plenty of fun when they went on shore—in chasing pigs, barking at old 
white-headed negresses, and other amusements, suited to the exalted 
taste and habits of the rising generation of officers. 

People will differ as to the merits of dogs; but we had no doubts as 
to the great superiority of ours over all the others on board, though the 
name we gave him certainly implied no such confidence on our part. 
After a full deliberation, it was decided to call him Shakings. Now it 
must be explained that shaking is the name given to small fragments of 
rope-yarns, odds and ends of cordage, bits of oakum, old lanyards—in 
short, to any kind of refuse arising out of the wear and tear of the ropes. 
This odd name was, perhaps, bestowed on our beautiful favorite in con¬ 
sequence of his color not being very dissimilar to that of well-tarred 
Russia hemp; while the resemblance was increased by many a dab of 
pitch, which his rough coat imbibed from the seams between the planks 
of the deck, in the hot weather. 

If old Shakings was no great beauty, he was, at least, the most com¬ 
panionable of dogs; and though he dearly loved the midshipmen, and 
was dearly beloved by them in return, he had enough of the animal in 
his composition to take a still higher pleasure in the society of his own 
kind. So that, when the high-bred, showy pointers belonging to the 
officers came on board, after a shooting excursion, Mr. Shakings lost r.o 
time in applying to them for the news. The pointers, who liked this 
sort of familiarity very well, gave poor Shakings all sorts of encourage¬ 
ment. Not so their masters; they could not bear to see such an abomi¬ 
nable cur, as they called our favorite, at once so cursedly dirty, and so 
utterly useless, mixing with their sleek and well-kept animals. At first 
their dislike was confined to such insulting expressions as these; then 
it came to an occasional kick, or a knock on the nose with the butt-end 
of a fowling-piece; and lastly, to a sound cut with the hunting-whip. 

Shakings, who instinctively knew his place, took all this, like a sensible 
fellow, in good part; while the mids, when out of hearing of the higher 
powers, uttered curses, both loud and deep, against the tyranny and 
oppression exercised against an animal which, in their fond fancy, was 
declared to be worth all the dogs in the ward-room put together. They 
were little prepared, however, for the stroke which soon fell upon them, 
perhaps in consequence of these very murmurs. To their great horror 
and indignation, one of the lieutenants, provoked at some liberty which 
Master Shakings had taken with his newly-polished boot, called out, one 
morning,— 

“ Man that jolly-boat, and land that infernal, dirty, ugly beast of a dog, 
belonging to the young gentlemen!” 

“Where shall I take him to, sir?” asked the strokesman of the boat. 

“Oh, any where; pull to the nearest part of the shore, and pitch him 
on the rocks. He ’ll shift for himself, I have no doubt.” So off went 
poor dear Shakings! 

If a stranger had come into the midshipmens’ berth at that moment, 
he might have thought his majesty’s naval service was about to be broken 
up. All allegiance, discipline, or subordination seemed utterly canceled 
by this horrible act. Many were the execrations hurled upward at the 
offending “ knobs,” who, we thought, were combining to make our lives 
miserable. Some of our party voted for writing a letter of remonstrance 


361 


EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 

to the admiral against this unheard-of outrage; and one youth swore 
deeply that he would leave the service, unless justice were obtained. 
But as he had been known to swear the same thing half a dozen times 
every day since he joined the ship, no great notice was taken of this 
pledge. Another declared, upon his word of honor, that such an act 
was enough to make a man turn Turk, and fly his country! At last, by 
general agreement, it was decided that we should not do a bit of duty, 
or even stir from our seats, till we obtained redress for our grievances. 
However, while we were in the very act of vowing mutiny and disobe¬ 
dience, the hands were turned up to “furl sails!” upon which the whole 
party, totally forgetting their magnanimous resolution, scudded up the 
ladders, and jumped into their stations with more than usual alacrity ; 
wisely thinking that the moment for actual revolt had not yet arrived. 

A better scheme than throwing up the service, or writing to the 
admiral, or turning Musselmen, was afterward concocted. The mid¬ 
shipmen, who went on shore in the next boat, easily got hold of poor 
Shakings, who was howling on the steps of the watering-place. In 
order to conceal him, he was stuffed, neck and crop, into the captain’s 
cloak-bag, brought safely on board, and restored once more to the bosom 
of his friends. 

In spite of all we could do, however, to keep Master Shakings below, 
he presently found his way to the quarter-deck, to receive the congratu¬ 
lations of the other dogs. There he was soon detected by the higher 
powers, and very shortly afterward trundled over the gangway, and again 
tossed on the beach. Upon this occasion he was honored by the presence 
of one of his own masters, a middy, sent upon this express duty, who 
was specially desired to land the brute, and not bring him on board 
again. Of course this particular youngster did not bring the dog off; 
but before night, somehow or other, old Shakings was snoring away, in 
grand chorus, with his more fashionable friends, the pointers, and dream¬ 
ing no evil, before the door of the very officer’s cabin whose beautifully 
polished boot he had brushed so rudely in the morning; an offense that 
had led to his banishment. 

This second return of our dog was too much. The whole posse of 
us were sent for on the quarter-deck, and, in very distinct terms, positively 
ordered not to bring Shakings on board again. These injunctions 
having been given, this wretched victim, as we termed him, of oppres¬ 
sion was once more landed among the cedar groves. This time he 
remained a full week on shore; but how or when he found his way off 
again no one ever knew; at least no one chose to divulge. Never was 
there anything like the mutual joy felt by Shakings and his two dozen 
masters. He careered about the ship, barked and yelled with delight, 
and, in his raptures, actually leaped, with his dirty feet, on the milk- 
white duck trowsers of the disgusted officers, who heartily wished him 
at the bottom of the anchorage! Thus the poor beast unwittingly con¬ 
tributed to accelerate his hapless fate, by this ill-timed show of con¬ 
fidence in those who were then plotting his ruin. If he had kept his 
paws to himself, and staid quietly in the dark recesses of the cock-pit, 
wings, cable-tiers, and other wild regions, the secrets of which were 
known only to the inhabitants of our sub-marine world, all might yet 
have been well. 

We had a grand jollification on the night of Shakings’ restoration; and 
his health was in the very act of being drunk, with three times three, 
when the officer of the watch, hearing an uproar below, the sounds of 


362 EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 

which were conveyed distinctly up the windsail, sent down to put our 
lights out; and we were forced to march oft' growling to our hammocks. 

Next day, to our surprise and horror, old Shakings was not to be seen 
or heard of. We searched every where, interrogated the coxswains of 
all the boats, and cross-questioned the marines who had been sentries, 
during the night, on the forecastle, gangways and poop; but all in vain— 
no trace of Shakings could be found. 

At length the opinion began to gain ground among us, that the poor 
beast had been put an end to by some diabolical means, and our ire 
mounted accordingly. This suspicion seemed the more natural, as the 
officers said not a word about the matter, nor even asked us what we 
had done with our dog. While we were in this state of excitement and 
distraction for our loss, one of the midshipmen, who had some drollery 
in his composition, gave a new turn to the expression of our thoughts. 

This gentleman, who was more than twice as old as most of us, say 
about thirty, had won the affections of the whole of our class, by the 
gentleness of his manners, and the generous part he always took on our 
side. He bore among us the pet name of Daddy; and certainly he was 
like a father to those among us who, like myself, were quite adrift in the 
ship, without any one to look after them. He was a man of talents and 
classical education, but he had entered the navy far too late in life ever 
to take to it cordially. His habits, indeed, had become so rigid, that 
they could never be made to bend to the mortifying kind of discipline 
which, it appears, every officer should run through, but which only the 
young and light-hearted can brook. Our worthy friend, accordingly, 
with all his abilities, taste and acquirements, never seemed at home on 
board ship; and unless a man can reach this point of liking for the sea, 
he is better on shore. At all events, old Daddy cared more about his 
books than about the blocks, and delighted much more in giving us 
assistance in our literary pursuits, and trying to teach us to be useful, 
than in rendering himself a proficient in those professional mysteries, 
which he never hoped to practice in earnest himself. 

What this very interesting person’s early history w T as we never could 
find out; nor why he entered the navy; nor how it came that a man of 
his powders and accomplishments should have been kept back so long. 
Indeed, the youngsters never inquired too closely into these matters, 
being quite contented to have the advantage of his protection against 
the oppression of the oldsters, who occasionally bullied them. Upon 
all occasions of difficulty, we were in the habit of clustering round him, 
to tell our grievances, great and small, with the certainty of ahvays 
finding in him that great desideratum in calamity—a patient and friendly 
listener. 

It will easily be supposed that our kind Daddy took more than usual 
interest in this affair of Shakings, and that he was applied to by us at 
every stage of the transaction. He was sadly perplexed, of course, 
when the dog was finally missing; and for some days he could give us 
no comfort, nor suggest any mode of revenge which was not too danger¬ 
ous for his young friends to put in practice. He prudently observed, 
that, as we had no certainty to go upon, it would be foolish to get our¬ 
selves into any serious scrape for nothing at all. 

“ There can be no harm, however,” he continued, in his dry and 
slightly sarcastic way, which all who knew him will recollect as well as 
if they saw him now, drawing his hand slowly across his mouth and 
chin; “there can be no harm, my boys, in putting the other dogs in 


EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 


363 

mourning for their dear departed friend Shakings; for, whatever is 
come of him, he is lost to them as well as to us, and his memory ought 
to be duly respected.” 

This hint was no sooner given than a cry was raised for crape, and 
every chest and bag ransacked, to procure badges of mourning. The 
pointers were speedily rigged up with a large bunch of crape, tied in a 
handsome bow, upon the left leg of each, just above the knee. The 
joke took immediately. The officers could not help laughing; for, 
though we considered them little better than fiends at that moment of 
excitement, they were, in fact, except in this instance, the best natured 
and most indulgent men I remember to have sailed with. They, of 
course, ordered the crape to be instantly cut oft' from the dogs’ legs; 
and one of the officers remarked to us, seriously, that as we had now 
had our piece of fun out, there were to be no more such tricks. 

Off we scampered, to consult old Daddy what was to be done next, 
as we had been positively ordered not to meddle any more with 
the dogs. 

“ Put the pigs in mourning,” he said. 

All our crape was expended by this time; but this want was soon 
supplied by men whose trade it is to discover resources in difficulty. 
With a generous devotion to the cause of public spirit, one of these 
juvenile mutineers pulled off his black handkerchief, and, tearing it in 
pieces, gave a portion to each of the circle, and away we all started 
to put into practice this new suggestion of our director-general of 
mischief. 

The row which ensued in the pig-sty was prodigious—for in those 
days, hogs were allowed a place on board a man-of-war, a custom most 
wisely abolished of late years, since nothing can be more out of char¬ 
acter with any ship than such nuisances. As these matters of taste and 
cleanliness were nothing to us, we did not intermit our noisy labor till 
every one of the grunters had his armlet of such crape as we had been 
able to muster. We then watched our opportunity, and opened the door 
so as to let out the whole herd of swine on the main-deck just at a 
moment when a group of the officers were standing on the fore part of 
the quarter-deck. Of course the liberated pigs, delighted with their 
freedom, passed, in review, under the very nose of our superiors, each 
with his mourning knot displayed, grunting or squealing along, as if it 
was their express object to attract attention to their domestic sorrow for 
the loss of Shakings. The officers were excessively provoked, as they 
could not help seeing that all this was affording entertainment, at their 
expense, to the whole crew; for, although the men took no part in this 
touch of insubordination, they were ready enough, in those idle times 
of the weary, weary peace, to catch at any species of distraction or 
deviltry, no matter what, to compensate for the loss of their wonted 
occupation of pommeling their enemies. 

The matter, therefore, necessarily became rather serious; and the 
whole gang of us being sent for on the quarter-deck, we were ranged 
in a line, each with his toes at the edge of a plank, according to the 
orthodox fashion of these gregarious scoldings, technically called “ toe- 
the-line matches.” We were then given to understand that our pro¬ 
ceedings were impertinent, and, after the orders we had received, highly 
offensive. It was with much difficulty that either party could keep their 
countenances during this official lecture, for, while it was going on, the 
sailors were endeavoring, by the direction of the officers, to remove the 


364: EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 

bits of silk from the legs of the pigs. If, however, it be difficult—as 
most difficult we found it—to put. a hog into mourning, it is a job ten 
times more troublesome to take him out again. Such, at least, is the 
fair inference from these two experiments; the only one, perhaps, on 
record—for it cost half the morning to undo what we had effected in 
less than an hour — to say nothing of the unceasing and outrageous 
uproar which took place along the decks, especially under the guns, 
and even under the coppers, forward in the galley, where two or three 
of the youngest pigs had wedged themselves, apparently resolved to 
die rather than submit to the degradation of being deprived of their 
mourning. 

All this was very creditable to the memory of poor Shakings; but, in 
the course of the day, the real secret of this extraordinary difficulty of 
taking a pig out of mourning was discovered. Two of the mids were 
detected in the very act of tying on a bit of black bunting to the leg of a 
sow, from which the seamen declared they had already cut off crape 
and silk enough to have made her a complete suit of black. 

As soon as these fresh offenses were reported, the whole party of us 
were ordered to the mast-head as a punishment. Some were sent to sit 
on the topmast cross-trees, some on the topgallant yard-arms, and one 
small gentleman being perched at the jib-boom end, was very properly 
balanced abaft by another little culprit at the extremity of the gaff. In 
this predicament we were hung out to dry for six or eight hours, as old 
Daddy remarked to us with a grin, when we were called down as the 
night fell. 

Our persevering friend, being rather provoked at the punishment of 
his young flock, now set to work to discover the real fate of Shakings. 
It soon occurred to him, that if the dog had really been made away with, 
as he shrewdly suspected, the butcher, in all probability, must have had 
a hand in his murder; accordingly he sent for the man in the evening, 
when the following dialogue took place: 

“ Well, butcher, will you have a glass of grog to-night?” 

“ Thank you, sir, thank you. Here’s your honor’s health?” said the 
other, after smoothing down his hair, and pulling an immense quid of 
tobacco out of his mouth. 

Old Daddy observed the peculiar relish with which the butcher took 
his glass; and mixing another, a good deal more potent, placed it before 
the fellow, and continued the conversation in these words: 

“ I tell you what it is, Mr. Butcher—you are as humane a man as any 
in the ship, l dare say; but, if required, you know well that you must 
do your duty, whether it is upon sheep or hogs?” 

“ Surely, sir.” 

“ Or upon dogs either?” suddenly asked the inquisitor. 

“ I do n’t know about that,” stammered the butcher, quite taken by 
surprise, and thrown all aback. 

“Well, well,” said Daddy, “here’s another glass for you—a stiff 
north-wester. Come, tell us all about it now. How did you get rid of 
the dog? — of Shakings, I mean?” 

“ Why, sir,” said the peaching rogue, “ I put him in a bag—a bread- 
bag, sir.” 

“ Well — what then?” 

“ I tied up the mouth, and put him overboard—out of the midship 
lower-deck port, sir.” 

“Yes; but he would not sink?” said Daddy. 


l 


EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 


365 

“ Oh, sir,” cried the butcher, now entering fully into the merciless 
spirit of his trade, “I put a four-and-twenty-pound shot into the bag 
along with Shakings.” 

u Did you?—Then, Master Butcher, all I can say is, you are as precious 
a rascal as ever went about unhanged. There, drink your grog, and be 
off with you!” 

Next morning when the officers were assembled at breakfast in the 
ward-room, the door of the captain of marines’ cabin was suddenly 
opened, and that officer, half shaved, and laughing through a collar of 
soap-suds, stalked out, with a paper in his hand. 

“ Here,” he exclaimed, “ is a copy of verses, which I found just now 
in my basin. I can’t tell how they got there, nor what they are about— 
but you shall judge.” 

So he read the two following stanzas of doggerel: 

o oo 

“ When the Northern Confed’racy threatened our shores, 

And roused Albion’s Lion, reclining to sleep, 

Preservation was taken of all the King’s Stores, 

Nor so much as a Rope Yarn was launched in the deep. 

“ But now it is Peace; other hopes are in view. 

And all active service as light as a feather; 

The Stores may be-, and humanity, too. 

For Shakings and Shot are thrown o’erboard together ! ” 

I need hardly say in what quarter of the ship this biting morsel of 
cock-pit satire was concocted, nor, indeed, who wrote it, for there was 
no one but our good Daddy who was equal to such a flight. About mid¬ 
night, an urchin, who shall be nameless, was thrust out of one of the 
after-ports of the lower-deck, from which he clambered up to the marine 
officer’s port, and the sash happening to have been lowered down on the 
gun, the epigram, copied by another of the youngsters, was pitched into 
the soldier’s basin. 

The wisest thing would have been for the officers to have said nothing 
about the matter, and let it blow by. But angry people are seldom 
judicious; so they made a formal complaint to the captain, who, to do 
him justice, was not a little puzzled how to settle the affair. The reputed 
author, however, was called up, and the captain said to him: 

“ Pray, sir, are you the writer of these lines?” 

“ I am, sir,” he replied, after a little consideration. 

u Then all I can say is,” remarked the captain, “they are clever 
enough in their way—but take my advice, and write no more such 
verses.” 

So the affair ended. The satirist took the captain’s hint in good part, 
and confined his pen to topics below the surface of the water. 

KEEPING WATCII. 

With a few exceptions, every person on board a man-of-war keeps 
watch in his turn: and as this is one of the most important of the wheels 
which go to make up the curious clock-work of a ship’s discipline, it 
seems to deserve a word or two in passing. 

The officers and midshipmen are generally divided into three watches— 
first, second and third. As the senior lieutenant does not keep watch, 
the officer next in rank takes the first, the junior lieutenant the second, 
and the master the third watch, in ships where there are not more than 
three lieutenants. Under each of these chiefs there is placed a squad 


366 EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 

of midshipmen; the principal one of whom is mate of the watch, the 
next in seniority is stationed on the forecastle, and after him comes the 
poop mid. The youngsters remain on the lee-side of the quarter-deck, 
along with the mate of the watch. For it must be observed, that no one 
but the captain, the lieutenants, the master, surgeon, purser, and marine 
officer is ever allowed, upon any occasion whatsoever, to walk on the 
weather-side. This custom has become so much a matter of course, 
that I hardly remember asking myself before, what may have been the 
origin of the regulation? The chief purpose, no doubt, is to draw a strong 
line of distinction between the different ranks; although, independently 
of this, the weather-side is certainly the most convenient to walk upon 
when the ship is pressed with sail: it is also the best sheltered from 
wind and rain; and the view, both low and aloft, is more commanding 
than it is from the leeward. 

Every person, also, not excepting the captain, when he comes on the 
quarter-deck, touches his hat; and as this salutation is supposed to be 
paid to this privileged spot itself, all those who at the moment have the 
honor to be upon it are bound to acknowledge the compliment. Thus, 
even when a midshipman comes up, and takes off his hat, all the officers 
who are walking the deck, the admiral included, if he happens to be of 
the number, touch their hats likewise. 

So completely does this form grow into a habit, that in the darkest 
night, and when there may not be a single person near the hatchway, it 
is invariably attended to with the same precision. Indeed, when an 
officer of the navy happens to be on board a merchant ship, or a packet, 
he finds it difficult to avoid carrying his hand to his hat every time he 
comes on deck. I, for one, at least, can never get over the feeling that 
it is rude to neglect this ceremony, and have often, when on board pas¬ 
sage vessels, wondered to see gentlemen so deficient in good breeding, 
as to come gaping up the hatchway, as if their hats were nailed to their 
heads, and their hands sewed into their breeches-pockets! 

Of course, each person in the watch has a specific duty to attend to, 
as I shall endeavor to describe presently; but, first, it may be well to 
mention the ingenious arrangement of the hours by which the periods 
of watching are equally distributed to all. 

In speaking of the three watches, it will, perhaps, avoid confusion, 
and rather simplify the description, to call them, for a moment, not first, 
second and third, as they are named on board ship, but to designate 
them by the letters A, B and C. 

Let us begin then by supposing that A’s watch commences at eight 
o’clock in the evening; the officer and his party remain on deck till mid¬ 
night, four hours being one period. This is called the first watch. B is 
next roused up, and keeps the middle watch, which lasts from midnight 
till four o’clock. C now comes up, and stays on deck till eight, which 
is the morning watch. A then returns to the deck, where he walks till 
noon, when he is relieved by B, who stays up till four. If C were now 
to keep the watch from four to eight, of course A would again have to 
keep the first watch on the second night, as he did it first starting; and 
all the others, in like manner, would have to keep over again exactly 
the same watches, every night and day. In order to break this uniform 
recurrence of intervals, an ingenious device has been hit upon to pro¬ 
duce a constant and equitable rotation. When or where this plan 
was invented, I do not know, but I believe it exists in the ships of 
all nations. 


EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 


367 

The period from four o’clock in the afternoon till eight in the evening, 
instead of constituting one watch, is divided into two watches, of a couple 
of hours each. These, I don’t know why, are called the u dog watches.” 
The first, which lasts from four to six o’clock, belongs, on the second 
day, according to the order described above, to C, who is, of course, 
relieved at six o’clock by A. This alteration, it will be observed, gives 
the first watch (from eight to midnight) to B, on the second night; the 
middle watch (from midnight to four) to C; and the morning watch 
(from four to eight) to A; the forenoon watch (from eight to noon) to B; 
and the afternoon (from noon to four) to C. The first dog watch (from 
four to six) will now be kept by A, the second dog watch (from six to 
eight) by B, and so on, round and round. By this mechanism, it will 
easily be perceived, the officers, on each succeeding day, have a watch 
to keep, always one stage earlier than that which they kept on the day 
before. Thus if A has the morning watch one night, he will have the 
middle watch on the night following, and the first watch on the night 
after that again. The distribution of time which this produces is very 
unequal, when the short period of twenty-four hours only is considered; 
but the arrangement rights itself in the course of a few days. On the 
first day, A has ten hours’ watch to keep out of the twenty-four, B eight, 
and C only six. But on the next day, A has only six hours, while B has 
ten, and C eight; while on the third day, A has eight, B six, and C ten 
hours’ watching; and so on, round and round, from year’s end to 
year’s end. 

This variety, to a person in health and spirits, is often quite delightful. 
Each watch has its peculiar advantages; and I need hardly add that each 
likewise furnishes an ample store of materials for complaining, to those 
discontented spirits whose chief delight is to coddle up grievances, as 
if, forsooth, the principal object of life was to keep ourselves unhappy, 
and to help to make others so. 

The first watch (eight o’clock to midnight) which comes after the 
labor of the day is done, and when everything is hushed and still, carries 
with it this great recommendation, that, although the hour of going to 
bed is deferred, the night’s rest is not afterward broken in upon. The 
prospect of u turning in ” at midnight, and being allowed to sleep till 
seven in the morning, helps greatly to keep us alive and merry during 
the first watch, and prevents the excitement of the past day from ebbing 
too fast. On the other hand, your thorough-bred growlers are apt to say, 
it is a grievous task to keep the first watch, after having gone through 
all the toil of the day, and, in particular, after having kept the afternoon 
watch, (noon to four o’clock,) which, in hot climates, is always a severe 
trial upon the strength. Generally speaking, however, I think the first 
watch is the least unpopular; for, I suppose, no mortal, whatever he 
might think, was ever found so Quixotic as to profess openly that he 
really liked keeping watch. Such a paradox would be famously ridiculed 
on board ship! 

The middle watch is almost universally held to be a great bore; and 
certainly it is a plague of the first order, to be shaken out of a warm 
bed at midnight, when three hours of sound sleep have sealed up our 
eyelids all the faster, and steeped our senses in forgetfulness, and in 
repose, generally much needed. It is a bitter break, too, to have four 
good hours sliced out of the very middle of the night’s rest, especially 
when this tiresome interval is to be passed in the cold and rain, or, which 
is often still more trying, in the sultry calm of a smooth, tropical sea, 


368 


EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 


when the sleepy sails, as wet with clew as if they had been dipped over¬ 
board, flap idly against the masts and rigging, but so very gently as barely 
to make the reef points patter-patter along the canvas, with notes so 
monotonous, that the bare recollection of their sound almost sets me to 
sleep now. 

Nevertheless the much abused middle watch has its advantages, at 
least for those ardent young spirits who choose to seek them out, and 
whose habit it is to make the most of things. There are full three hours 
and a half of sound snooze before it begins, and as long a “spell of 
sleep” after it is over. Beside which, the mind, being rested as well 
as the body, before the middle watch begins, both come to their task so 
freshly, that if there be any hard or anxious duties to execute, they are 
promptly and well attended to. Even if there be nothing to do but pace 
the deck, the thoughts of an officer of any enthusiasm may contrive to 
find occupation either in looking back, or in looking forward, with that 
kind of cheerfulness which belongs to youth and health usefully employed. 
At that season of the night every one else is asleep, save the quarter¬ 
master at the con, the helmsman at the wheel, and the lookout-men at 
their different stations on the gangways, the bows, and the quarters, 
and except, of course, the different drowsy middies, who, poor fellows! 
keep tramping along the quarter-deck, backward and forward, counting 
the half-hour bells with anxious weariness; or looking wistfully at the 
sand-glass, which the sentry at the cabin door shakes ever and anon, as 
if the lazy march of time, like that of a tired donkey, could be accelerated 
by jogging. 

But the joyous morning watch is very naturally the universal favorite. 
It is the beginning of a new day of activity and enterprize. The duties 
are attacked, too, after a good night’s rest; so that, when the first touches 
of the dawn appear, and the horizon, previously lost in the black sky, 
begins to show itself in the east, there comes over the spirits a feeling 
of elasticity and strength, of which even the dullest are not altogether 
insensible. In war time, this is a moment when hundreds of eyes are 
engaged in peering all round into the twilight; and happy is the sharp- 
sighted person who first calls out with a voice of exultation: 

“ A sail, sir, a sail!” 

“Whereabouts?” is the eager reply. 

“ Three or four points on the lee-bow, sir.” 

“ Up with the helm!” cries the officer. “ Set the topgallant and royal 
studding-sails—rig out the foretopmast studding-sail boom! Youngster, 
run down and tell the captain there is a stranger on the lee-bow—and 
say that we are making all sail. She looks very roguish.” 

As the merry morning comes dancing gloriously on, and other vessels 
hove in sight, fresh measures must be taken, as to the course steered, 
or the quantity of sail to be set. So that this period of the day, at sea, 
in a cruising ship, gives occasion, more, perhaps, than any other time, 
for the exercise of those stirring qualities of prompt decision, and vigor 
in the execution of every purpose, which, probably, form the essential 
characteristics of the profession. 

The morning watch, also, independent of the active employment it 
hardly ever fails to afford, leaves the whole day free, from eight o’clock 
till four in the afternoon. Many a previously broken resolution is put 
off to this period, only to be again stranded. To those, however, who 
choose to study, the certainty of having one clear day in every three, 
free from the distraction of all technical duties, is of the greatest 


EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 


369 

consequence; though, it must be owned that at the very best, a ship is 
but a wretched place for reading. The eternal motion, and the infernal 
noise, almost baffle the most resolute students. 

For a hungry midshipman (when are they not hungry?) the morning 
watch has attractions of a still more tender nature. The mate, or senior 
man among them, is always invited to breakfast with the officers at eight 
o’clock; and one or two of the youngsters, in turn, breakfast with the 
captain at half past eight, along with the officer of the morning watch 
and the first lieutenant, who, in many ships, is the constant guest of the 
captain, both at this meal and at dinner. 

I have already mentioned that the first watch begins, nominally, at 
eight, and ends at midnight; but people are much mistaken, who Suppose 
that a sleepy-headed midshipman, with the prospect of a cold middle 
watch before him, and just awakened out of a sound nap, is disposed to 
jump up at once, dress himself, and run upon deck. Alas! it is far 
from this; and no one who has not been exposed to the trial can conceive 
the low ebb to which patriotism, zeal, public spirit—call it what you 
please—sinks at such an hour in the breast of the unhappy wretch who, 
in the midst of one of those light and airy dreams, which render the 
night season of young people such a heaven of repose, is suddenly 
roused up. After being awakened by a rude tug at the clues of his 
hammock, he is hailed, after the following fashion, by the gruff old 
quarter-master: 

“ Mr. Doughead!” 

No answer. Another good tug at the hammock. 

“ Mr. Doughead! it’s twelve o’clock, sir!” 

“Very well, very well; you need not shake me out of bed, need you? 
What sort of a night is it?” 

“ It rains a little, sir, and is just beginning to blow. It looks very 
black, sir.” 

“Oh, plague take it! Then we shall have to take in a reef, I 
suppose ?” 

“ It seems very like it, sir. It is beginning to snuffle.” 

With this, Mr. Doughead gives himself a good shrug in his blanket, 
turns half round, to escape the glare of light from the quarter-master’s 
lantern, hung up within six inches of his face, expressly to keep him 
awake, and in ten seconds he is again tightly clasped in the arms of 
Morpheus, the presiding deity of the cock-pit at that hour. By and by 
comes down the quarter-master of the middle watch, who, unlike the 
young gentleman, has relieved the deck twenty minutes before. 

“Mr. Doughead! it’s almost one bell, sir.” 

“ Indeed! ” exclaims the youth. “ I never knew anything of it. I 
never was called.” 

“ Oh, yes, you were, sir. The man I relieved said you asked him 
what sort of weather it was, and whether we should have to take in a 
reef.” 

“ I ask about the weather! That’s only one of the lies he always tells, 
to get me into a scrape.” 

While they are speaking, the bell strikes one, indicating that half an 
hour has elapsed since the first conversation took place, touching the 
weather; and presently, before Mr. Doughead has got his second foot 
over the side of his hammock, the mid who is to be relieved by him 
comes rattling down the cock-pit ladder, as wet as a shag, cold, angry, 
and more than half asleep. 

24 


EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 


370 

“Isay, Master Doughy, do you mean to relieve the deck to-night? 
Here it’s almost two bells, and you have hardly shown a leg yet. I’ll 
be hanged if it is not too bad! You are the worst relief in the whole 
ship. I am obliged to keep all my own watch, and generally half of 
yours. I’ll not stand it any more; but go to the first lieutenant to-mor¬ 
row morning, and see whether he cannot find ways and means of making 
you move a little faster. It’s a disgrace to the service!” 

To all this Duffy has only one pettish dogged reply, “I tell you, again, 

I was not called.” 

The appeal to the first lieutenant, however, is seldom made; for all 
the parties concerned are pretty much alike. But the midshipmen are 
not slow, at times, to take the law of these cases into their own hands, 
and to execute summary justice, according to their own fashion, on any 
particularly incorrigibly “ bad relief,” as these tardy gentlemen are 
aptly termed. 

One of the most common punishments, on these occasions, is called 
“cutting down,” a process not quite so fatal as might be imagined from 
the term. Most people, I presume, know what sort of a thing a ham¬ 
mock is. It consists of a piece of canvas, five feet long by two wide, 
suspended to the deck overhead by means of two sets of small lines, 
called clues, made fast to grummets, or rings of rope, which again are 
attached by a lanyard to the battens stretching along the beams. In 
this sacking are placed a small mattress, a pillow, and a couple of blankets, 
to which a pair of sheets may or may not be added. The degree of 
nocturnal room and comfort enjoyed by these young gentlemen may be 
understood, when it is mentioned that the whole of the apparatus just 
described occupies less than a foot and a half in width, and that the 
hammocks touch one another. Nevertheless, I can honestly say, that the 
soundest sleep, by far, that I have ever known, has been found in these 
apparently uncomfortable places of repose; and though the recollection 
of many a slumber broken up, and the bitter pang experienced on making 
the first move to exchange so cozy a nest for the snarling of a piercing 
north-west gale, on the coast of America, will never leave my memory ; 
yet I look back to those days and nights with a sort of evergreen fresh¬ 
ness of interest, which only increases with years. 

The wicked operation of “ cutting down ” may be managed in three 
ways. The mildest form is to take a knife and divide the foremost 
lanyard, or suspending cord. Of course that end of the hammock 
instantly falls, and the sleepy-headed youth is pitched out, feet foremost, 
on the deck. The other plan, which directs the after lanyard to be cut, 
is not quite so gentle, nor so safe, as it brings down the sleeper’s head 
with a sharp bang on the deck, while his heels are jerked into the air. 
The third is to cut away both ends at once, which has the effect of 
bringing the round stern of the young officer in contact with the edge 
of any of the chests which may be placed so as to receive it. The 
startled victim is then rolled out of bed with his nose on the deck; or, 
if he happens to be sleeping in the tier, he tumbles on the hard bends 
of the cable coiled under him. This flooring is much more rugged, 
and not much softer than the planks, so that his fall is but a choice of 
miserable bumps. 

The malice of this horse-play is sometimes augmented by placing a 
line round the middle part of the hammock, and fastening it to the 
beams overhead, in such a way that, when the lanyards at the ends are 
cut the head and tail of the youth shall descend freely; but the nobler 


EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 


371 

part of him being secured by the belly-band, as it is called, the future 
hero of some future Trafalgar remains suspended ingloriously, in mid 
air, like the golden fleece over a wollen-draper’s shop. 

These are but a few of the tricks played off upon those who will not 
relieve the deck in proper time. I remember an incorrigible snoozer, 
who had been called three or four times, but still gave no symptoms of 
any intention of “ showing a leg,” the only allowable test of sincerity in 
the process called “ turning out.” About five o’clock, on a fine tropical 
morning, when the ship was cruising off the Mono Passage, in the West 
Indies, and just before the day began to dawn, it was resolved, in a full 
conclave of the middies of his own watch, assembled on the lee-side 
of the quarter-deck, that an example should forthwith be made of the 
sleeper. 

A detachment, consisting of four stout hands, was sent to the ham¬ 
mock of the culprit. Two of them held the youth firmly down, whiles 
the others wrapped the bed-clothes round him, and then lashed him 
up—that is, strapped him tightly in by means of the lashing, a long 
cord with which the hammocks are secured when brought upon deck in 
the day-time. No part of the unfortunate wight was left exposed 
except his face. When he was fairly tied in, the lanyards of his hamr 
mock were cast off, and the bundle, half midshipman, half bedding, was 
dragged along, like a log of wood, to the square of the hatchway. 

When all was secure, the word “haul up” was given from below,, 
upon which the party on deck hoisted away. The sleeper awakened, 
vanished from the cock-pit, only to make his appearance, in a few 
seconds, at the mouth of the windsail, half way between the quarter¬ 
deck and the mizzen-stay. Of course, the boys watched their oppor¬ 
tunity, when the officer of the watch had gone forward on the gangway,, 
to see how the head-yards were trimmed; but long before he came aft 
again, their victim was lowered down, and the signal halyards unbent. 
What to do with the wretch next was a great puzzle, till one of them 
said, “ Oh! let us stick him up on his end, between two of the guns on, 
the weather-side of the deck, and, perhaps, the officer of the watch may 
take him for an Egyptian mummy, and have him sent to the British 
Museum, as a present to the king.” This advice was instantly followed; 
and the enraged, mortified and helpless youngster, being placed so that 
the first rays of the sun should fall on his countenance, there was no, 
mistaking his identity. 

jack’s allowance. 

The moment of noon is the most important of all the grand epochs 
which mark the progress of time on board ship. It commences our day 
in nautical astronomy, and is ushered in by a number of ceremonies, 
some of which never fail to excite the ridicule of our “shore going” 
friends who may happen to be on board; and who, from not well under¬ 
standing the drift of what they see, are apt to fancy much of it unneces¬ 
sary. Nothing is so easy, indeed, as-to quiz those punctilious formalities 
with which naval discipline abounds. But if experience has taught that, 
many of the most valuable fruits of good order can be traced to the 
exact observance of these very forms, they surely lose none of their 
importance from having been so long established that their origin is for¬ 
gotten—still less from being laughed at by persons not having had the 
happiness of being brought up at sea, and, therefore, by no means the 
best judges of the utility of these refinements. 


EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 


372 

As the hour of noon approaches, the cooks of the messes may be seen 
coming up the fore and main hatchways, with their mess-kids in their 
hands, the hoops of which are kept as bright as silver, and the wood¬ 
work as neat and clean as a pail of the most tidy dairy-maid. The grog, 
also, is now mixed in a large tub, under the half-deck, by the quarter¬ 
masters of the watch below, assisted by other leading and responsible 
men among the ship’s company, closely superintended, of course, by 
the mate of the hold, to see that no liquor is abstracted, and also by the 
purser’s steward, who regulates the exact quantity of spirits and of 
water to be measured out. The seamen whose next turn it is to take 
the wheel, or heave the lead, or who have to mount to the mast-head to 
look out, as well as the marines who are to be planted as sentries at 
noon, are allowed to take both their dinner and their grog beforehand. 
These persons are called “ seven-bell men,” from the hour at which 
they have their allowance served to them. 

Long before twelve o’clock, all these, and various other minor pre¬ 
parations, have been so completely made, that there is generally a 
remarkable stillness over the whole ship just before the important 
moment of noon arrives. The boatswain stands near the break of the 
forecastle, with his bright silver call, or whistle, in his hand, which ever 
and anon he places just at the tip of his lips, to blow out any crumbs 
which threaten to interfere with its melody, or to give a faint “ too weet! 
too weet!” as a preparatory note, to fix the attention of the boatswain’s 
mates, who being, like their chief, provided with calls, station themselves 
at intervals along the main-deck, ready to give due accompaniment to 
their leader’s tune. 

The boatswain keeps his eye on the group of observers, and well 
knows when the “ sun is up,” by the stir which takes place among the 
astronomers, or by noticing the master working out his latitude with a 
pencil, on the ebony bar of his quadrant, or on the edge of the hammock¬ 
railing; though if he be one of your modern neat-handed navigators, 
he carries his little book for this purpose. In one way or other the 
latitude is computed, as soon as the master is satisfied that the sun has 
reached his highest altitude in the heavens. He then walks aft to the 
officer of the watch, and reports twelve o’clock, communicating, also, 
the degrees and minutes of the latitude observed. The lieutenant pro¬ 
ceeds to the captain, wherever he may be, and repeats that it is twelve, 
and that so and so is the latitude. The same formal round of reports is 
gone through, even if the captain be on deck, and has heard every word 
spoken by the master, or even if he has himself assisted in making the 
observation. 

The captain now says to the officer of the watch, “ Make it twelve.” 

The officer calls out to the mate of the watch, “ Make it twelve.” 

The mate — ready primed — sings out to the quarter-master, “ Strike 
eight bells!” 

And lastly, the hard-a-weather old quarter-master, stepping down the 
ladder, grunts out to the sentry at the cabin door, “ Turn the glass, and 
strike the bell!” 

By this time the boatswain’s call has been in his mouth for several 
minutes, his elbow in the air, and his little finger on the stop, ready to 
send forth the glad tidings of a hearty meal. Not less ready or less 
eager are the groups of listeners seated at their snow-white deal tables 
below, or the crowd surrounding the coppers, with their mess-kids acting 
the part of drums to their impatient knuckles. At the first stroke of the 


EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 


373 

bell, which, at this particular hour, is always sounded with peculiar 
vivacity, the officer of the watch exclaims to the boatswain, u Pipe to 
dinner!” 

These words, followed by a glorious burst of shrill sounds, “ long 
drawn out,” are hailed with a murmur of delight by many a hungry tar, 
and many a jolly marine. The merry notes are nearly drowned, next 
instant, in the rattle of tubs and kettles, the voice of the ship’s cook and 
his mates, bawling out the numbers of the messes, as well as by the 
sound of feet trampling along the decks, and down the ladders, with the 
steaming, ample store of provisions—such as set up and brace the sea¬ 
man’s frame, and give it vigor for any amount of physical action. 

a seaman’s grave. 

Independently of any personal interest, sailors are always very desirous 
that no one should die on board—or rather, they have a great objection 
to the body of any one who has died remaining among them. This is a 
superstition easily accounted for among men whose whole lives are 
passed, as it were, on the very edge of the grave, and who have quite 
enough, as they suppose, to remind them of their mortality, without the 
actual presence of its effects. An idea prevails among them, that sharks 
will follow a ship for a whole voyage which has a corpse on board; and 
the loss of a mast, or the long duration of a foul wind, or any other 
inconvenience, is sure to be ascribed to the same influence. Accord¬ 
ingly, when a man dies on board ship, there is an obvious anxiety among 
the crew to get rid of their late shipmate as speedily as possible. 

It need not be mentioned that the surgeon is in constant attendance 
upon the dying man, who has generally been removed from his hammock 
to a cot, which is larger and more commodious, and is placed within a 
screen on one side of the sick bay, as the hospital of the ship is called. 
It is usual for the captain to pass through this place, and to speak to the 
men, every morning; and I imagine there is hardly a ship in the service 
in which wine, fresh meat, and any other supplies recommended by the 
surgeon, are not sent from the tables of the captain and officers to such 
of the sick men as require a more generous diet than the ship’s stores 
provide. After the carver in the gun-room has helped his messmates, 
he generally turns to the surgeon, and says, “ Doctor, what shall I send 
to the sick?” But, even without this, the steward would certainly be 
taken to task were he to omit inquiring, as a matter of course, what was 
wanted in the sick bay. The restoration of the health of the invalids 
by such supplies is, perhaps, not more important, however, than the 
moral influence of the attention on the part of the officers. 

I have generally observed, also, a most valuable effect produced on 
the minds of the survivors, by the captain attending the death-bed of 
any of his crew. It is astonishing, indeed, how far such well timed 
notice, however small, goes with the sailors; and it is of importance to 
remember that this is only one of numberless means by which a judicious 
officer may always strengthen his hands, and improve the discipline of 
his ship, at an extremely small sacrifice of time, and none at all of his 
true dignity. For the men are vastly easier managed when they have 
reason to believe their superiors enter into and respect their feelings, 
than when, as sometimes happens, they see them act as if they scarcely 
considered themselves of the same species. Sailors, indeed, will sub¬ 
mit cheerfully to much greater hardships, and work with double energy, 
at the word of an officer, however strict, provided they are made sensible 


EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 


374 

that while he is regulated by a sense of justice in his severity, he like¬ 
wise considers an attention to their comforts and happiness a part of 
his duty. 

I would, accordingly, strongly recommend every captain to be seen 
(no matter for how short a time) by the bedside of any of his crew 
whom the surgeon may report as dying. Not occasionally, and in the 
flourishing style with which we read of great generals visiting hospitals, 
but uniformly, and in the quiet sobriety of real kindness, as well as 
hearty consideration for the feelings of a man falling at his post in the 
service of his country. The 6clat of such a death is inferior, no doubt, 
to that which is bestowed in battle; but we should recollect that on this 
very account the sacrifice deserves more attention at our hands. A man 
who is killed in action has a brilliant Gazette to record his exploits, and 
the whole country may be said to attend his death-bed. But the merit 
is not less—or may even be much greater—of the soldier or sailor who 
dies of a fever in a distant land—his story untold, and his sufferings 
unseen. In warring against climates unsuited to his frame, he may have 
encountered, in the public service, enemies often more formidable than 
those who handle pike and gun. There should be nothing left undone, 
therefore, at such a .time, to show, not only to the dying man, but to his 
shipmates, and his family at home, that his services are appreciated. 

1 remember, on one occasion, hearing the captain of a ship say to a 
poor fellow who was almost gone, that he was glad to see him so cheerful 
at such a moment; and begged to know if he had anything to say. 

u I hope, sir,” said the expiring seaman, with a smile, u I have done 
my duty to your satisfaction?” 

“ That you have, my lad,” said his commander, “ and to the satisfaction 
of your country, too.” 

“ That is all I wanted to know, sir,” replied the man. 

These few common-place words cost, the captain not five minutes of 
his time, but were long recollected with gratitude by the people under 
his orders, and contributed, along with many other graceful acts of 
considerate attention, to fix his authority as firmly as he could desire. 

If a sailor who knows he is dying has a captain who pleases him, he 
Is very likely to send a message by the surgeon to beg a visit—not often 
to trouble his commander with any commission, but merely to say some¬ 
thing at,parting. No officer, of course, would ever refuse to grant such 
an interview, but it appears to me it should always be volunteered; for 
many men may wish it whose habitual respect would disincline them to 
take such a liberty, even at the moment when all distinctions are about 
to cease. 

Very shortly after poor Jack dies, he is prepared for his deep sea 
grave by his messmates, who, with the assistance of the sail-maker, and 
in the presence of the master-at-arms, sew him up in his hammock, and 
having placed a couple of cannon-shot at his feet, they rest the body 
(which now not a little resembles an Egyptian mummy) on a spare grat¬ 
ing. Some portion of the bedding and clothes are always made up in 
the package — apparently to prevent the form being too much seen. 
►It is then carried aft, and, being placed across the after hatchway, the 
union jack is thrown over all. Sometimes it is placed between two of 
'the guns, under the half-deck; but generally, I think, he is laid where I 
have .mentioned, just abaft the mainmast. 

I should have mentioned before that as soon as the surgeon’s ineffectual 
professional offices are at an end, he walks to the quarter-deck, and 


EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 


375 

reports to the officer of the watch that one of his patients has just 
expired. At whatever hour of the day or night this occurs, the captain 
is immediately made acquainted with the circumstance. At the same 
time the master-at-arms is ordered by the officer of the watch to take 
possession of the dead man’s clothes; and his messmates, soon after¬ 
ward, proceed to dress and prepare the body for burial. 

Next day, generally about eleven o’clock, the bell on which the half 
hours are struck is tolled for the funeral by one of the quarter-masters 
of the watch below, or by one of the deceased’s messmates; and all 
who choose to be present assemble on the gangways, booms, and round 
the mainmast, while the forepart of the quarter-deck is occupied by 
the officers. 

In some ships—and it ought, perhaps, to be so in all—it is made 
imperative on the officers and crew to attend this ceremony. If such 
attendance be a proper mark of respect to a professional brother—as it 
surely is—it ought to be enforced, and not left to caprice. There may, 
indeed, be times of great fatigue, when it would harass men and officers 
needlessly to oblige them to come on deck for every funeral, and upon 
such occasions the watch on deck may be sufficient. Or, when some 
dire disease gets into a ship, and is cutting down her crew by its daily 
and nightly, or it may be hourly, ravages, and when two or three times 
in a watch, the ceremony must be repeated, those only whose turn it is 
to be on deck need be assembled. In such fearful times, the funeral is 
generally made to follow close upon the death. 

While the people are repairing to the quarter-deck, in obedience to the 
summons of the bell, the grating on which the body is placed, being 
lifted from the main-deck by the messmates of the man who has died, is 
made to rest across the lee gangway. The stanchions for the man-ropes 
of the side are unshipped, and an opening made at the after-end of the 
hammock netting sufficiently large to allow a free passage. 

The body is still covered by the flag already mentioned, with the feet 
projecting a little over the gunwale, while the messmates of the deceased 
range themselves on each side. A rope, which is kept out of sight in 
these arrangements, is then made fast to the grating, for a purpose which 
will be seen presently. 

When all is ready, the chaplain, if there be one on board, or, if not, 
the captain, or any of the officers he may direct to officiate, appears on 
the quarter-deck, and commences the beautiful service, which, though 
but too familiar to most ears, I have observed, never fails to rivet the 
attention even of the rudest and least reflecting. Of course, the bell 
has ceased to toll, and every one stands in silence and uncovered as the 
prayers are read. Sailors, with all their looseness of habits, are well 
disposed to be sincerely religious; and when they have fair play given 
them, they will always, I believe, be found to stand on as good vantage 
ground, in this respect, as their fellow-countrymen on shore. Be this 
as it may, there can be no more attentive, or apparently reverent auditory, 
than assembles on the deck of a ship of war, on the occasion of a ship¬ 
mate’s burial. 

There is no material difference in the form of this service from that 
used on shore, excepting in the place where allusion is made to the 
return of the body to its parent earth. Perhaps it might have been as 
well as to have left this unchanged—for the ocean may well be taken, 
in this sense, as a part of the earth—but since an alteration of the words 
was thought necessary, it could not have been made in better taste. 


376 EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 

The land service for the burial of the dead contains the following 
words:— 

“ Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God, of his great mercy, to 
take unto himself the soul of our dear brother here departed, we there¬ 
fore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust 
to dust; in sure and certain hope,” etc. 

Every one, I am sure, who has attended the funeral of a friend—and 
who will this not include ?—must recollect the solemnity of that stage of 
the ceremony, where, as the above words are pronounced, there are cast 
into the grave three successive portions of earth, which, falling on the 
coffin, send up a hollow, mournful sound, resembling no other that I 
know. 

In the burial service at sea, the part quoted above is varied in the 
following very striking and solemn manner:— 

“Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God, in his wise providence, 
to take out of this world the soul of our deceased brother, we therefore 
commit his body to the deep, to be turned into corruption, looking for 
the resurrection of the body, when the sea shall give up her dead,” etc. 

At the commencement of this part of the service, one of the seamen 
stoops down, and disengages the flag from the remains of his late ship¬ 
mate, while the others, at the words, “ we commit his body to the deep,” 
project the grating right into the sea. The body being loaded with shot 
at one end, glances off the grating, plunges at once into the ocean, and— 

“ In a moment, like a drop of rain. 

He sinks into its depths with bubbling groan, 

Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown.” 

This part of the ceremony is rather less impressive than the corres¬ 
pondent part on land; but still there is something solemn, as well as 
startling, in the sudden splash, followed by the sound of the grating, as 
it is towed along, under the main-chains. 

In a fine day at sea, in smooth water, and when all the ship’s company 
and officers are assembled, the ceremony just described, although a 
melancholy one, as it must always be, is often so pleasing, all things 
considered, that it is calculated to leave even cheerful impressions on 
the mind. 

Occasions, however, as gloomy as any sad heart could conceive, do 
sometimes occur for a sea funeral, sufficient to strike the sternest natures. 
The most impressive which I recollect, of the numbers I have witnessed, 
was in the flag-ship, on the coast of North America. 

There was a poor little middy on board, so delicate and fragile, that 
the sea was clearly no fit profession for him; but he or his friends 
thought otherwise; and as he had a spirit for which his frame was no 
match, he soon gave token of decay. This boy was a great favorite with 
everybody; the sailors smiled whenever he passed, as they would have 
done to a child; the officers petted him, and coddled him up with all 
sorts of good things; and his messmates — in a style which did not 
altogether please him, but which he could not well resist, as it was 
meant most kindly—nicknamed him Dolly. Poor fellow!—he was long 
remembered afterward. I forget what his particular complaint was, but 
he gradually sunk; and at last went out just as a taper might have done, 
exposed to such gusts of wind as blew in that tempestuous region. He 
died in the morning; but it was not until the evening that he was prepared 
for a seaman’s grave. 


EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 


377 

I remember, in the course of the day, going to the side of the boy’s 
hammock, and on laying my hand upon his breast, was astonished to find 
it still warm—so much so, that I almost imagined I could feel the heart 
beat. This, of course, was a vain fancy; but I was much attached to 
my little companion, being then not much taller myself; and l was 
soothed and gratified, in a childish way, by discovering that my friend, 
though many hours dead, had not yet acquired the usual revolting 
chillness. 

In after years I have sometimes thought of this incident, when reflect¬ 
ing on the pleasing doctrine of the Spaniards, that as soon as children 
die, they are translated into angels, without any of those “cold obstruc¬ 
tions ” which, they pretend, intercept and retard the souls of other 
mortals. The peculiar circumstances connected with the funeral which 
I am about to describe, and the fanciful superstitions of the sailors upon 
the occasion, have combined to fix the whole scene in my memory. 

Something occurred during the day to prevent the funeral taking place 
at the usual hour, and the ceremony was deferred till long after sunset. 
The evening was extremely dark, and it was blowing a treble-reefed 
topsail breeze. We had just sent down the topgallant yards, and made 
all snug for a boisterous winter’s night. As it became necessary to have 
lights to see what was done, several signal lanterns were placed on the 
break of the quarter-deck, and others along the hammock railings on 
the lee gangway. The whole ship’s company and officers were assem¬ 
bled, some on the booms, others in the boats, while the main rigging 
was crowded half way up to the cat-harpings. Overhead, the mainsail, 
illuminated as high as the yard by the lamps, was bulging forward under 
the gale, which was rising every minute, and straining so violently at the 
main-sheet, that there was some doubt whether it might not be necessary 
to interrupt the funeral in order to take sail off the ship. The lower- 
deck ports lay completely under water, and several times the muzzles 
of the main-deck guns were plunged into the sea; so that the end of 
the grating on which the remains of poor Dolly were laid, once or twice 
nearly touched the tops of the waves, as they foamed and hissed past. 
The rain fell fast on the bare heads of the crew, dropping also on the 
officers, during all the ceremony, from the foot of the mainsail, and wet¬ 
ting the leaves of the prayer-book. The wind sighed over us among 
the wet shrouds, with a note so mournful, that there could not have been 
a more appropriate dirge. 

The ship—pitching violently—strained and creaked from end to end: 
so that, what with the noise of the sea, the rattling of the ropes, and 
the whistling of the wind, hardly one word of the service could be dis¬ 
tinguished. The men, however, understood, by a motion of the captain’s 
hand, when the time came, and the body of our dear little brother was 
committed to the deep. 

So violent a squall was sweeping past the ship at this moment, that no 
sound was heard of the usual splash, which made the sailors allege that 
their young favorite never touched the water at all, but was at once 
carried off in the gale to his final resting-place! 

THE CHASE. 

On the 8th of November, 1810, when we were lying in that splendid 
harbor the Cove of Cork, and quietly refitting our ship, an order came 
for us to proceed to sea instantly, on a cruise of a week off Cape Clear, 
in quest of an enemy’s vessel, reported to have been seen from some of 


EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 


378 

the signal towers on the west coast. We were in such a predicament, 
that it was impossible to start before the next morning, though we worked 
all night. Off we went at last; but it was not till the 11th that we 
reached our appointed station. Toward evening it fell dead calm, at 
which time there were two strange sails in sight; one of them a ship, 
which we “ calculated ” was an American, from the whiteness of his 
sails; the other a very suspicious, roguish-looking brig; but as bolh of 
them were hull down, much of this was guess-work. 

As the night fell, a light breeze sprung up, and we made all sail in 
the direction of the brig, though she was no longer visible. In the 
course of the middle watch, we fortunately got sight of her with our 
night-glasses, and by two in the morning were near enough to give her 
a shot. The brig was then standing on a wind; while we were coming 
down upon her, right before it, or nearly so. The sound of our bow- 
chaser could hardly have reached the vessel it was fired at before her 
helm was up; and in the next instant her booms were rigged out, and 
her studding-sails, low and aloft, seen dangling at the yard-arms. The 
most crack ship in his majesty’s service, with everything prepared, could 
hardly have made sail more smartly. 

For our parts, we could set nothing more, having already spread every 
stitch of canvas; but the yards were trimmed afresh, the tacks hauled 
closer out, and the halyards sweated up till the yards actually pressed 
against the sheeve-holes. The best helmsman on board was placed at 
the wheel; and the foot of the foresail being drawn slightly up by the 
bunt slab-line, he could just see the chase clear of the foremast, and so 
keep her very nearly right, ahead. The two forecastle guns, long nine- 
pounders, were now brought to bear on the brig; but as we made quite 
sure of catching her, and did not wish needlessly to injure our prize, or 
to hurt her people, orders were given to fire at the sails, which, expanded 
as they now were before us, like the tail of a peacock in his fullest 
pride, offered a mark which could not well be missed. Nevertheless, 
the little fellow would not heave to for all we could do with our fore¬ 
castle guns. At four o’clock, therefore, we managed to get one of the 
long eighteen-pounders on the main-deck, to bear upon him from the 
bridle-port. Still we could not stop him, though it was now bright 
moonlight, and there was no longer any tenderness about hurting his 
people, or injuring his hull. The vessel, however, at which we were 
now peppering away with round and grape shot, as hard as we could 
discharge them from three good smart guns, was so low in the water, 
that she offered, when seen end on, scarcely any mark. How it hap¬ 
pened that none of her yards or masts came rattling down, and that none 
of her sails flew away, under the influence of our fire was quite 
inexplicable. 

The water still continued quite smooth, though the breeze had 
freshened, till we went along at the rate of six or seven knots. When 
the privateer got the wind, which we had brought up with us, she almost 
kept her own, and it became evident that she was one of that light and 
airy description of vessels which have generally an advantage over larger 
ships when there is but little wind. We, therefore, observed, with much 
anxiety, that about half past, four the breeze began gradually to die 
away, after which the chase rather gained than lost distance. Of course, 
the guns were now plied with double care, and our best marksmen were 
straining their eyes, and exerting their utmost skill, confident of hitting 
her, but all apparently to no purpose. One or two of the officers, in 


EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 379 

particular, who piqued themselves on knowing how to level a gun 011 
principles quite unerring, in vain tried their infallible rules to bring our 
persevering chase to acknowledge himself caught. 

By this time, of course, every man and boy in the ship was on deck, 
whether it was his watch or not; even the marine officer, the purser and 
the doctor left their beds—a rare phenomenon. Every one was giving 
his opinion to his neighbor; some said the shot went over her, some 
that they fell short; and the opinion that she was a witch, or the Flying 
Dutchman, or some other phantom, was current among the sailors, while 
the marines were clicking their flints, and preparing to give our little 
gentleman a taste of the small arms when within their reach. 

While things were in this anxious, but very pleasurable state, our 
foresail flapped slowly against the mast—a sure indication that the breeze 
was lulling. The quadruple rows of reef-points were next heard to 
rattle along the topsails—sounds too well known to every ear as symptoms 
of an approaching calm. The studding-sails were still full, and so were 
the royals; but, by and by, even their light canvas refused to belly out, 
so faint was the air which still carried us, but very gently, along the 
water, on the surface of which not a ripple was now to be seen in any 
direction. As the ship, however, still answered her helm, we kept the 
guns to bear on the chase without intermission, and with this degree of 
effect, that all her sails, both low and aloft, were soon completely riddled, 
and some of them were seen hanging in such absolute rags, that the 
slightest puff of wind must have blown them away like so many cobwebs. 
By five o’clock it was almost entirely calm, and we had the mortification 
to observe that the chase, whose perseverance had kept him thus long 
out of our clutches, was putting in practice a maneuver we could not 
imitate. He thrust out his sweeps, as they are called, huge oars, requir¬ 
ing five or six men to each. These, when properly handled, by a suffi¬ 
ciently numerous crew, in a small light vessel, give her the heels of a 
large ship, when so nearly calm as it now was with us. We were not 
going more than a knot through the water, if so much, which was barely 
enough to give us steerage w r ay. 

The Frenchman got out, I suppose, about fifteen or twenty of these 
sweeps, and so vigorously were they plied, that we could see by the 
moonlight, and still more distinctly when the dawn appeared, that the 
foam was made to fly in sheets at each stroke of these gigantic oars, 
which were worked together, by their looms being united by a hawser 
stretching fore and aft. Our chief anxiety now was to pitch a shot 
among his sweeps, as one successful hit there would have sent half his 
crew spinning about the decks. But we were not so fortunate; and in 
less than an hour he was out of shot, walking off from us in a style which 
it was impossible not to admire, though our disappointment and vexation 
were excessive. By mid-day he was at least ten miles ahead of us; 
and at two o’clock we could just see his upper sails above the horizon. 
We had observed, during the morning, that our indefatigable little chase, 
as soon as he had rowdd himself from under the relentless fire of our 
guns, was busily employed in bending a new suit of sails, fishing his 
splintered yards, shifting his topgallant-masts, and rigging out fresh 
studding-sail booms—all wounded, more or less, by our shot. As the 
severe labor of the sweeps was never intermitted, we knew, to a certainty, 
that the chase, though small, must be full of hands, and, consequently, 
it was an object of great importance for us to catch him. Of this, how¬ 
ever, there now seemed but very little chance,* and many were the 


EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 


380 

hearty maledictions he received, though shared, it is true, by our own 
crack marksmen, now quite crest-fallen, or driven to the poor excuse of 
declaring that the moonlight on the water had deceived them as to the 
distance. 

It really seemed as if every one on board had been seized with a 
fever—nothing else was thought of, or talked of, but the French brig; 
every glass, great and small, was in requisition, from the pocket spy¬ 
glass of the youngestmidshipman, to the forty-inch focus of the captain. 
Each telescope in its turn was hoisted to the cross-trees, and pointed, 
with a sort of sickening eagerness, toward the lessening speck on the 
distant horizon. One might also have thought that the ship was planted 
in a grove of trees, in the height of spring time, so numerous were the 
whistlers. This practice of whistling for a wind is one of our nautical 
superstitions, which, however groundless and absurd, fastens insensibly 
on the strongest minded sailors at such times. Indeed, I have seen many 
an anxious officer’s mouth take the piping form, and have even heard 
some sounds escape from lips which would have vehemently disclaimed 
all belief in the efficacy of such incantation. 

But it would be about as wise a project to reason with the gales them¬ 
selves as to attempt convincing Jack that, as the wind bloweth only when 
and where it listeth, his invoking it can be of no sort of use one way or 
the other. He will still whistle on, I have no doubt, in all time to come, 
when he wants a breeze, in spite of the march of intellect; for, as long 
as the elements remain the same, a sailor’s life, manage it as we will, 
cannot be materially altered. It must always be made up of alternate 
severe labor and complete indolence, of the highest imaginable excite¬ 
ment, and of the most perfect lassitude. If I were not anxious at this 
moment to get back to my chase, I think I could show how these causes, 
acting upon such strange stuff as sailors are made of, leads to the for¬ 
mation of those superstitious habits by which they have always been 
characterized. 

In the course of the afternoon, we perceived from the mast-head, far 
astern, a dark line along the horizon, which some of our most experienced 
hands pronounced the first trace of a breeze coming up. In the course 
of half an hour, this line had widened so much that it could easily be 
perceived from the deck. Upon seeing this, the whistlers redoubled 
their efforts; and whether, as they pretended, it was owing to their 
interest with the clerk of the weather office, or whether the wind, if left 
alone, would have come just as soon, I do not venture to pronounce; 
but certain it is, that, long before sunset, our hearts were rejoiced by the 
sight of those numerous flying patches of wind, scattered over the calm 
surface of the sea, and called by seamen, cat’s-paws—I presume from the 
stealthy, timorous manner in which they seem to touch the water, and 
straightway vanish again. By and by the true wind, the ripple from 
which had marked the horizon astern of us, and broken the face of the 
mirror shining brightly everywhere else, indicated its approach, by 
fanning out the skysails, and other flying kites, generally supposed to be 
superfluous, but which, upon such occasions as this, do good service, by 
catching the first breath of air that seems always to float far above the 
water. One by one the sails were filled; and as the ship gathered way, 
every person marked the glistening eye of the helmsman, when he felt 
the spokes of the wheel pressing against his hand, by the action of the 
water on the rudder. The fire engine had been carried into the tops, 
and, where its long spout could not reach, buckets of water were drawn 


EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 381 

up, and thrown on the sails, so that every pore was filled, and the full 
effect of the wind was exerted on the canvas. 

The ship now began to speak, as it is termed; and looking over the 
gangway, we could see a line of small hissing bubbles, not yet deserving 
the name of spray, but quite enough to prove to us that the breeze was 
beginning to tell. It was near the middle of November, but the day was 
as hot as if it had been summer; and the wind, now freshening at every 
second, blew coolly and gratefully upon us, giving assurance that we 
should have no more calms to trouble us, whatever might be our other 
difficulties in capturing Monsieur Frenchman. 

Of these difficulties, the greatest by far was that of keeping sight of 
the brig after it became dark. We overhauled him, however, so fast that 
we had great hopes of being able to command him with our night-glasses, 
in which case we made pretty sure of our prize. The night-glass, it 
may be right to explain, is a telescope of small power, increasing the 
diameter of objects only about eight times. It has a large field-glass; 
and, in order to save the interception of light, has one lens fewer than 
usual, which omission has the effect of inverting the object looked at. 
But this, though inconvenient, is of little consequence, in cases where 
the desideratum is merely to get sight of a vessel, without seeking to 
make out the details. 

Meanwhile, as we spanked along, rapidly accelerating our pace, and 
rejoicing in the cracking of the ropes, and the bending of the lightest 
and loftiest spars — that butterfly sort of gear which a very little wind 
soon brushes away—we had the malicious satisfaction of observing that 
the poor little privateer had not yet got a mouthful of the charming wind, 
which, like the well known intoxicating gas, was by this time setting us 
all a-skipping about the decks. The greater part of the visible ocean 
was now under the influence of the new-born breeze; but, in the spot 
where the brig lay, there occurred a belt or splash of clear white light, 
within which the calm still lingered, with the privateer sparkling in its 
center. Just as the sun went down, however, this spot was likewise melted 
into the rest, and the brig, like a poor hare roused from her seat, sprang 
off again. We were soon near enough to see her sweeps rigged in—to 
the delight, no doubt, of her weary crew, whose apprehensions of an English 
prison had probably kept up their strength to a pitch rarely equalled. 

As the twilight — the brief twilight of winter — galloped .away, a 
hundred pairs of eyes were almost jumping out of their sockets, in their 
attempts to pierce the night; while those who had glasses kept scrubbing 
them without mercy, as if they imagined more light would be let into 
the tube the more they injured the lenses. One person, and only one, 
continued, as he asserted, to see the chase, faintly strung, like a bead, 
on the horizon. I need not say that this sharp-sighted gentleman was 
nailed to his post, and ordered on no account to move his head, fatigue 
or no fatigue. There happened to be a single star, directly over the 
spot to which this fortunate youth was directing his view, with as much 
anxiety as ever Galileo peered into the heavens in search of a new 
planet. This fact being announced, a dozen spy-glasses were seen 
wagging up and down, between this directing star and that part of the 
horizon, now almost invisible, which lay immediately below it. Many 
were the doubts expressed of the correctness of the first observation, 
and many the tormenting questions put to the observer, as to which way 
the brig was standing? what sail was set? whether we were drawing up 
with her or npt? as if the poor youngster had been placed along side of 


EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 


332 

the vessel. These doubts and fears were put an end to, or nearly so, 
by bidding the boy keep his eye fixed on what he took to be the chase, 
and then, without acquainting him with the change, altering the ship’s 
course for half a minute. This experiment had scarcely been commenced 
before he cried out, “ I have lost sight of her this very moment! I saw 
her but an instant ago!” And when the ship’s head was brought back 
to the original course, he exclaimed, “ There she is again, by jingo! just 
to the right of the star.” 

This star served another useful purpose at the same time. The man 
at the wheel could see it shining between the leech of the foretop-sail 
and that of the topmast-studding-sail, and was thus enabled to steer the 
ship with much greater steadiness than he could possibly have done by 
the compass alone. Before midnight, as the breeze had freshened 
greatly, and we were going at the rate of nine knots an hour, we had 
drawn up so much with the privateer, that every one could see her with 
the naked eye, and the gunner, with his mates, and the marksmen who 
had lost their credit on the preceding night, were fidgeting and fussing 
about the guns, eager to be banging away at the prize, as they now 
began, rather prematurely, to call her—little knowing what a dextrous, 
persevering, and gallant little fellow they had to deal with, and how- 
much trouble he was yet to give us. 

It was not till about two o’clock that we once more came within good 
shot of him; and as it had been alleged that the guns were fired too 
quickly the night before, and without sufficient care in pointing, the 
utmost attention was now paid to laying them properly; and the lanyard 
of the trigger never pulled till the person looking along the gun felt 
confident of his aim. The brig, however, appeared to possess the same 
witch-like, invulnerable quality as ever; for we could neither strike her 
hull, so as to force her to cry “ peccavi,” nor bring down a yard, nor lop 
off a mast or a boom. It was really a curious spectacle to see a little 
bit of a thing skimming away before the wind, with such a huge monster 
as the Endymion tearing and plunging after her, like a voracious dolphin 
leaping from sea to sea in pursuit of a flying-fish. 

In time, this must have ended in the destruction of the brig; for, as 
we gained upon her rapidly, some of our shot must by and by have taken 
effect, and sent her to the bottom. She was destined, however, to enjoy 
a little longer existence. The proper plan, perhaps, would have been 
to stand on, firing at her sails, till we had reached within musket-shot, 
and then to have knocked down the helmsman and every one else on her 
deck. This, however, was not our captain’s plan—or perhaps he became 
impatient—at all events he gave orders for the whole starboard broadside 
to be got ready, and then, giving the ship a yaw, poured the whole 
discharge, as he thought, right into his wretched victim! 

Not a mortal on board the frigate expected ever to see the poor brig 
again. What, then, was our surprise, when the smoke blew swiftly past, 
to see the intrepid little cocky gliding away more merrily than before. 
As far as good discipline would allow, there was a general murmur of 
applause at the Frenchman’s gallantry. In the next instant, however, 
this sound was converted into hearty laughter, over the frigate’s decks, 
when, in answer to our thundering broadside, a single small gun, a 
six-pounder, was fired from the brig’s stern, as if in contempt of his 
formidable antagonist’s prowess. 

Instead of gaining by our maneuver, we had lost a good deal, and in 
two ways. In the first place, by yawing out of our course, we enabled 


EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 


383 

the privateer to gain several hundred yards upon us; and secondly, his 
funny little shot, which had excited so much mirth, passed through the lee 
foretop-sail yardarm, about six feet inside the boom iron. Had it struck 
on the windward side, where the yard was cracking and straining at a 
most furious rate, the greater part of the sails on the foremast, might have 
been taken in quicker than we could have wished—for we were now 
going at the rate of eleven and a half, with the wind on the quarter. 

Just as we made out where his first shot had struck us, another cut through 
the weather main-topgallant sheet, and so he went on, firing away briskly 
till most of our lofty sails were fluttering with the holes made in them. 
His own sails, I need scarcely add, were by this time so completely torn 
up by our shot, that we could see the sky through them all; but still he 
refused to heave to—and, by constantly firing his single stern-chaser, 
was evidently resolved to lose no possible chance of escape. Had one 
or two of his shot struck either of our topmasts, I really believe he might 
have got off. It therefore became absolutely necessary that we should 
either demolish or capture him without further loss of time. The 
choice we left to himself, as will be seen. But such a spirited cruiser 
as this was an enemy worth subduing at any cost; for there was no 
calculating the mischief a privateer so admirably commanded might have 
wrought in a convoy. There was a degree of discretion, also, about this 
expert privateersman, which was very remarkable, and deserving of 
such favor at our hands as we had to spare. He took care to direct his 
stern-chaser so high that there was little chance of his shot striking any 
of our people. Indeed, he evidently aimed solely at crippling the masts, 
knowing right well that it would answer none of his ends to kill or 
wound any number of his enemy’s crew, while it might irritate their 
captain to show him less mercy at the last moment, which, as will be 
seen, was fast approaching. 

The breeze had now freshened nearly to a gale of wind, and when 
the log was hove, out of curiosity, just after the broadside I have described, 
we were going nearly twelve knots, (or between thirteen and fourteen 
miles an hour,) foaming and splashing along. The distance between us 
and the brig was now rapidly decreasing, for most of his sails were in 
shreds, and we determined to bring him, as we said, to his senses at last. 
The guns were reloaded, and orders given to depress them as much as 
possible—that is, to point their muzzles downward—but not a shot was 
to be fired till the frigate came actually along side of the chase. Such 
was the poor privateer’s sentence of death: severe, indeed, but quite 
necessary, for he appeared resolved never to yield. 

On we flew, right down upon our prey, like the enormous rockbird of 
the Arabian Nights. We had ceased firing our bow-chasers, that the 
smoke might not stand between us and the lesson we meant to read to 
our resolute pupil, so that there was u silence deep as death” along our 
decks, and doubtless on his; for he likewise had intermitted his firing, 
and seemed prepared to meet his fate, and go to the bottom like a man. 
It was possible, also, we thought, that he might only be watching, even 
in his last extremity, to take advantage of any negligence on our part, 
which should allow him to haul suddenly across our bows, and, by getting 
on a wind, have a chance of escaping. This chance, it is true, was 
very small, for not one of his sails was in a condition to stand such a 
breeze as was now blowing, unless when running nearly before it. But 
we had seen enough, during the two days we had been together, to 
apprehend that his activity was at least a match for ours; and as he had 


EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 


384 

already shown that he did not care a fig for shot, he might bend new 
sails as fast as we could. 

At all events, we were resolved to make him surrender, or run him 
down: such was our duty, and that the Frenchman knew right well. 
He waited, however, until our flying jib-boom end was almost over his 
taffrail; and the narrow space between us was filled with a confused, 
boiling heap of foam, partly caused by his bows, and partly by ours. 
Then, and not till then, when he must have seen into our ports and 
along the decks, which were lighted up fore and aft, he first gave signal 
of surrender. 

The manner in which this was done by the captain of the privateer 
was as spirited and characteristic as any part of his previous conduct. 
The night was very dark; but the ships were so near to one another 
that we could distinguish the tall figure of a man mount the weather 
main-rigging of the brig, where he stood erect, with a lantern in his 
hand, held out at right-angles from his body. Had this light not been 
seen, or its purpose not understood, or had it been delayed for twenty 
seconds, the frigate must, almost in spite of herself, have gone right over 
him, and the salvo of a double-shotted broadside would have done the 
last and fitting honors over the Frenchman’s grave. 

Even as it was, it cost us some trouble to avoid running him down; 
for, although the helm was put over immediately, our lee quarter, as 
the ship flew up in the wind, almost grazed his weather gangway. In 
passing, we ordered him to bring-to likewise. This he did as soon as 
we gave him room; though we were still close enough to see the effect 
of such a maneuver at such a moment. Every stitch of sail he had set 
was blown, in one moment, clean out of the bolt-ropes. His halyards, 
tacks, and sheets had been all racked aloft, so that everything not made 
of canvas remained at its place — the yards at the mast-heads, and the 
booms rigged out—while the empty leech and foot-ropes hung down in 
festoons where, but a minute before, the tattered sail had been spread. 

We fared, comparatively speaking, not much better; for although the 
instant the course was altered, the order was given to let fly the topsail 
halyards, and every other necessary rope; and although the down-haul 
tackles, clewlines, and buntlines, were all ready manned, in expectation 
of this evolution, we succeeded with great difficulty in saving the fore 
or main-topsails ; but the topgallant-sails were blown to pieces. All the 
flying kites went off in a crack, whisking far away to leeward, like dried 
forest leaves in autumn. 

It may be supposed that the chase was now completely over; and that 
we had nothing further to do than to take possession of our prize. Not 
at all! It was found next to impossible to board the brig, or, at least, 
it seemed so dangerous, that our captain was unwilling to hazard a boat 
and crew, till daylight came. The privateer, having no sail set to keep 
her steady, became so unmanageable, that the sea made a clean breach 
over all, rendering it out of the question to board her on the weather 
side. Nor was she more easily approachable to leeward, where a 
tangled network of broken spars, half-torn sails, shattered booms, and 
smacking rope’s-ends formed such a line of “ chevaux-de-frise ” from 
the cat-head to the counter, that all attempts to get near her on that side 
were useless. 

The gale increased, before morning, to such a pitch, that, as there 
was still a doubt if any boat could live, the intention of boarding our 
prize was of course further delayed. But we took care to keep close to 


Entered according to Aot of Congress, A- D. mdooolv, by Henry Howe, in the clerk's office of the Diatriot Court of the United States for the Southern Diatriot of Ohio. 

aV cWa. 

‘ We, therefore, commit his body to the deep, to be turned into corruption, looking for the resurrection of the body when 

the sea shall give up her dead.”—Page 3?o. 



































































































EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. S85 

her, a little to windward, in order to watch her proceedings as narrowly 
as possible. It did not escape our notice, in the meantime, that our 
friend, (he was no longer our foe, though not yet our prisoner,) went on 
quietly, even in the height of the gale, shifting his wounded yards, 
reefing new ropes, and bending fresh sails. This caused us to redouble 
our vigilance during the morning, and the event showed that we had 
good need for such watchfulness. About three o’clock in the afternoon, 
the brig having fallen a little to leeward, and a furious squall of wind 
and rain coming on at the same moment, she suddenly bore up, and set 
off once more, right before the wind. At the height of the squall, we 
totally lost sight of our prize; and such a hubbub I rarely recollect to 
have heard in my life before. 

u Where is she? — Who was looking out? — Where did you see her 
last?” — and a hundred similar questions, reproaches, scolds, and the 
whole of the ugly family of oaths, were poured out in abundance ; some 
on the privateer, whose adroitness had thus over-reached our vigilance; 
some upon those who, by their neglect, had given him the opportunity; 
and many imprecations were uttered merely to express the depth of 
anger and disappointment at the stupid loss of a good thing, which had 
cost so much trouble to catch. All this passed over in the first burst — 
sail was made at once—the topsails, close reefed, were sheeted home 
like lightning—and off we dashed, into the thick of the squall, in search 
of our lost treasure. At each mast-head, and at every yard-arm, there 
was planted a look-out man, while the forecastle hammock-netting was 
filled with volunteer spyglasses. For about a quarter of an hour a dead 
silence reigned over the whole ship, during which anxious interval every 
eye was strained to the utmost, for no one knew exactly where to look. 
There was, indeed, no certainty of our not actually running past the 
privateer, and it would not have surprised us much, when the squall 
cleared up, had we seen him a mile or two to windward, far beyond our 
reach. These fears were put on end to by the sharp-eyed captain of 
the foretop, who had perched himself on the jib-boom end, calling out, 
with a voice of the greatest glee— 

“There he goes! there he goes! right ahead! under his topsails and 
foresail!” 

And, sure enough, there we saw him, springing along from wave to 
wave, with his masts bending forward like reeds, under the pressure of 
sail enough to have laid him on his beam-ends, had he broached to. In 
such tempestuous weather, a small vessel has no chance whatever with a 
frigate; indeed, we could observe that, when the little brig fell between 
two high seas, her foresail flapped to the mast, fairly becalmed by the 
wave behind her. 

In a very few minutes, we were again along side, and doubtless the 
Frenchman thought we were at last going to execute summary vengeance 
upon him for his treachery, as we called it. Nothing daunted, however, 
by the style in which we bore down upon him, the gallant commander 
of this pretty little eggshell of a vessel placed himself on the weather- 
quarter, and with a speaking trumpet in his hand, indicated, by gesticu¬ 
lations, a wish to be heard. This could not well be refused; and we 
steered as close as we could pass along without bringing the two vessels 
in contact, or risking the entanglement of the yards, when we rolled 
toward one another. 

“ I have been compelled to bear up,” he called out in French, “other¬ 
wise the brig must have gone to the bottom. The sea broke over us in 
25 


386 


EXPERIENCES OF A BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER. 


such a way that I have been obliged, as you may perceive, to throw all 
my guns, boats and spars overboard. We have now several feet of water 
in the hold, in consequence of your shot, which you may likewise 
observe have nearly destroyed our upper works. If, therefore, you 
oblige me to heave to, I cannot keep the vessel afloat one hour in such 
weather.” 

“ Will you make no further attempt to escape ? ” asked the captain of 
the Endymion. 

“As yet I have made none,” he replied, firmly; “I struck to you 
already. I am your prize, and, feeling as a man of honor, I do not con¬ 
sider myself at liberty to escape, even if I had the power. I bore up, 
when the squall came on, as a matter of necessity. If you will allow 
me to run before the wind, along with you, till the weather moderates, 
you may take possession of the brig when you please—if not, I must go 
to the bottom.” 

Such was the substance of a conversation, very difficult to keep up 
across the tempest, which was now whistling at a great rate. To have 
brought the ships again to the wind, after what had been said, would 
have been to imitate the celebrated “ Noyades,” of Nantes; for the 
privateer must have been swamped instantly. Although we distrusted 
our companion, therefore, most grievously, we sailed along most lovingly 
together, as if we had been the best possible friends, for about sixty or 
seventy miles; during the greater part of this interval, the frigate had 
scarcely any sail set at all; and we sometimes expected to see our little 
friend pop fairly under the water, and so elude us by foundering, or 
escape by witchcraft, by the protection of which, in the opinion of the 
Johnnies, he had been so long kept from us. 

At eight o’clock in the evening, it began to moderate, and by midnight 
we succeeded in getting on board the prize, after a run of between 
three and four hundred miles. Such is the scale of nautical sport! 

And where, I now beg to ask, is the fox-hunting, or the piracy, or 
anything else more exciting than this noble game? 

The brig proved to be the Milan privateer, from St. Malo, of fourteen 
guns, and eighty men, many of whom were unfortunately wounded by 
our shot, and several were killed. She had been at sea eighteen days, 
but had made no captures. The guns, as I have already mentioned, had 
been thrown overboard to lighten her. In the morning we stopped the 
leaks, exchanged the prisoners for a prize crew, and put our heads 
toward the Cove of Cork again, chuckling at our own success in having 
nabbed the very vessel we were sent after. But this part of the exploit, 
it seemed, we had no title to claim merit for, since the Milan had not seen 
the land, nor been within many miles of it. This was a trifle, however; and 
we returned right merrily to tell our long story of the three days’ chase. 

The captain’s name was Lepelletier—I have pleasure in recording it— 
M. Pierre Lepelletier, of St. Malo; and wherever he goes I will venture 
to say he can meet no braver or more resolute man than himself. Long 
before he came on board he had well earned the respect of his captors, 
high and low; and his manners and information, after we became per¬ 
sonally acquainted with him, raised him still more in general estimation. 


NARRATIVE 


♦ 


OF 


A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES, 


BEING THE ADVENTURES OF JOHN R. JKWKTT, SURVIVOR OF THE CREW OF THE SHIP BOSTON, 
DURING A CAPTIVITY OF NEARLY THREE YEARS, AMONG THE SAVAGES OF NOOTKA SOUND, 
BY WHOM HIS 


COMRADES WERE MASSACRED. 


I was born in Boston, a considerable borough town in Lincolnshire, 
in Great Britain, on the twenty-first of May, 1783. My father, Edward 
Jewitt, was by trade a blacksmith, and esteemed among the first in his 
line of business in that place. 

When a child I was always fond of being in the shop, among the work¬ 
men, endeavoring to imitate what I saw them do. I was at length intro¬ 
duced into the shop, and my natural turn of mind corresponding with 
the employment, I became, in a short time, uncommonly expert at the 
work to which I was set. About a year after I had commenced this 
apprenticeship, my father, finding that he could carry on his business to 
more advantage in Hull, removed thither with his family. Among his 
principal customers at Hull, were the Americans who frequented that 
port, and from whose conversation, my father, as well as myself, formed 
the most favorable opinion of that country, as affording an excellent field 
for the exertions of industry, and a flattering prospect for the establish¬ 
ment of a young man in life. In the summer of the year 1802, during 
the peace between England and France, the ship Boston, belonging to 
Boston, in Massachusetts, and commanded by Captain John Salter, arrived 
at Hull, whither she came to take on board a cargo of such goods as 
were wanted for the trade, with the Indians on the north-west coast of 
America, from whence, after having taken in a lading of furs and skins, 
she was to proceed to China, and from thence home to America. The 
ship, having occasion for many repairs and alterations, necessary for so 
long a voyage, the captain applied to my father to do the smith-work, 
which was very considerable. That gentleman, who was of a social turn, 
used often to call at my father’s house, where he passed many of his 
evenings. 

In the hours that he passed at my father’s, Captain Salter, who had for 
a great number of years been at sea, and seen almost all parts of the 
world, used sometimes to speak of his voyages, and observing me listen 
with much attention to his relations, he one day when I had brought him 
tome work, said to me, in rather a jocose manner, “ John, how should you 
like to go with me?” I answered that it would give me great pleasure, 
that I had for a long time wished to visit foreign countries, particularly 
America, which I had been told so many fine stories of, and that if my 
father would give his consent and he was willing to take me with him, I 
would go. u 1 shall be very glad to do it,” said he, u if your father can be 



388 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


prevailed on to let you go, and as I want an expert smith for an armorer, 
the one I have shipped for that purpose not being sufficiently master of 
his trade, I have no doubt that you will answer my turn well, and on my 
return to America, I shall probably be able to do something much better 
for you in Boston. I will take the first opportunity of speaking to your 
father about it, and try to persuade him to consent.” He accordingly, the 
next evening that he called at our house, introduced the subject: my 
father at first would not listen to the proposal. But on Captain Salter’s 
telling him of what benefit it would be to me to go the voyage with him, 
and that it was a pity to keep a promising and ingenious young fellow, 
like myself, confined to a small shop in England, when if I had tolerable 
success, I might do so much better in America, where wages were much 
higher, and living cheaper, he at length gave up his objections and con¬ 
sented that I should ship on board the Boston as an armorer, at the rate 
of thirty dollars per month. 

The ship having undergone a thorough repair and been well coppered, 
proceeded to take on board her cargo, which consisted of English clothes, 
Dutch blankets, looking-glasses, beads, knives, razors, etc., which were 
received from Holland, some sugar and molasses, about twenty hogsheads 
of rum, including stores for the ship, a great quantity of ammunition, 
cutlasses, pistols, and three thousand muskets and fowling-pieces. The 
ship being loaded and ready for sea, as I was preparing for my departure, 
my father came to me, and taking me aside, said to me with much emotion, 
“John, I am now going to part with you, and heaven only knows if we shall 
ever again meet. But in whatever part of the world you are, always 
bear it mind, that on your own conduct will depend your success in life. 
Be honest, industrious, frugal, and temperate, and you will not fail, in 
whatsoever country it may be your lot to be placed, to gain yourself 
friends. Let the Bible be your guide, and your reliance in any fortune 
that may befall you, that Almighty Being who knows how to bring forth 
good from evil, and who never deserts those who put their trust in him.” 
He repeated his exhortations to me to lead an honest and Christian life, 
and to recollect that I had a father, a mother, a brother, and sister, who 
could not but feel a strong interest in my welfare, enjoining me to write 
him by the first opportunity that should offer to England, from whatever 
part of the world I might be in, more particularly on my arrival in Boston. 
This I promised to do, but long unhappily was it before I was able to 
fulfill this promise. I then took an affectionate leave of my worthy parent, 
whose feelings would hardly permit him to speak, and bidding an affec¬ 
tionate farewell to my brother, sister, and step-mother, who expressed 
the greatest solicitude for my future fortune, went on board the ship, 
which proceeded to the Downs to be ready for the first favorable wind. 
I found myself well accommodated on board as regarded my work, an 
iron forge having been erected on deck; this my father had made for 
the ship on a new plan, for which he afterward obtained a patent; while 
a corner of the steerage was appropriated to my vice bench, so that in 
bad weather I could work below. 

On the third day of September, 1802, we sailed from the Downs with 
a fair wind, in company with twenty-four sail of American vessels, most 
of which were bound home. During the first part of our voyage we saw 
scarcely any fish, excepting some whales, a few sharks, and flying fish; 
but after weathering Cape Horn we met with numerous shoals of sea 
porpoises, several of which we caught, and as we had been for some time 
without fresh provisions, I found it not only a palatable but really a very 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


389 

excellent food. With a fair wind and easy weather from the twenty-eighth 
of December, the period of our passing Cape Horn, we pursued our 
voyage to the northward until the twelfth of March, 1803, when we made 
Woody Point, in Nootka Sound, on the north-west coast of America. We 
immediately stood up the Sound for Nootka, where Captain Salter had 
determined to stop, in order to supply the ship with wood and water before 
proceeding up the coast to trade. The ship accordingly came to anchor 
in this place, at twelve o’clock at night, in twelve fathom water, muddy 
bottom, and so near the shore that to prevent the ship from winding we 
secured her by a hawser to the trees. On the morning of the next day, 
the thirteenth, several of the natives came on board in a canoe from the 
village of Nootka, with their king, called Maquina, who appeared much 
pleased on seeing us, and with great seeming cordiality, welcomed Cap¬ 
tain Salter and his officers to his country. As I had never before beheld 
a savage of any nation, it may readily be supposed that the novelty of 
their appearance, so different from any people that I had hitherto seen, 
excited in me strong feelings of surprise and curiosity. I was, however, 
particularly struck with the looks of their king, who was a man of a 
dignified aspect, about six feet in height and extremely straight and well 
proportioned; his features were in general good, and his face was ren¬ 
dered remarkable by a large Roman nose, a very uncommon form of 
feature among these people; his complexion was of a dark copper hue, 
though his face, legs, and arms, were on this occasion, so covered with 
red paint, that their natural color could scarcely be perceived; his eye¬ 
brows were painted black, in two broad stripes, like a new moon, and his 
long black hair, which shone with oil, was fastened in a bunch on the 
top of his head, and strewed or powdered all over with white down, which 
gave him a most curious and extraordinary appearance. He was dressed 
in a large mantle or cloak of the black sea-otter skin, which reached to 
his knees, and was fastened around his middle by a broad belt of the 
cloth of the country, wrought or painted with figures of several colors; 
this dress was by no means unbecoming, but, on the contrary, had an air 
of savage magnificence. 

From his having frequently visited the English and American ships 
that traded to the coast, Maquina had learned the signification of a number 
of English words, and in general could make himself pretty well under¬ 
stood by us in our own language. He was always the first to go on board 
such ships as came to Nootka, which he was much pleased in visiting, 
even when he had no trade to offer, as he almost always received some 
small present, and was in general extremely well treated by the com¬ 
manders. He remained on board of us for some time, during which the 
captain took him into the cabin and treated him with a glass of rum; 
these people being very fond of distilled spirits, and some biscuit and 
molasses which they prefer to any kind of food that we can offer them. 

As there are seldom many furs to be purchased at this place, and it 
was not fully the season, Captain Salter had put in here not so much 
with an expectation of trading as to procure an ample stock of wood and 
water for the supply of the ship on the coast, thinking it more prudent 
to take it on board at Nootka, from the generally friendly disposition of 
the people, than to endanger the safety of his men in sending them on 
shore for that purpose among the more ferocious natives of the north. 
With this view, we immediately set about getting our water-casks in 
readiness, and the next and two succeeding days part of the crew were 
sent on shore to cut pine timber and assist the carpenter in making it 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


390 

into yards and spars for the ship, while those on board were employed in 
refitting the rigging, repairing the sails, etc., when we proceeded to take 
in our wood and water as expeditiously as possible, during which time 
I kept myself busily employed in repairing the muskets, making knives, 
tomaxes, etc., and doing such iron work as was wanted for the ship. 
Meantime more or less of the natives came on board of us daily, bringing 
with them fresh salmon with which they supplied us in great plenty, re¬ 
ceiving in return some trifling articles. Captain Salter was always very 
particular before admitting these people on board to see that they had 
no arms about them, by obliging them indiscriminately to throw off their 
garments, so that he felt perfectly secure from any attack. On the 
fifteenth the king came on board with several of his chiefs; he was 
dressed, as before, in his magnificent otter skin robe, having his face highly 
painted, and his hair tossed off with the white down which looked like 
snow; his chiefs were dressed in mantles of the country cloth of its 
natural color, which is a pale yellow; these were ornamented with a 
broad border, painted or wrought in figures of several colors, represent¬ 
ing men’s heads, various animals, etc., and secured around them by a 
belt like that of the king, from which it was distinguished only by being 
narrower. The dress of the common people is of the same fashion, and 
differs from that of the chiefs in being of a coarser texture, and painted 
red, of one uniform color. 

Captain Salter invited Maquina and his chiefs to dine with him, and 
it was curious to see how these people, when they eat, seat themselves, 
in their country fashion, upon our chairs, with their feet under them, 
crossed like Turks. They cannot endure the taste of salt, and the only 
tiling they would eat with us was the ship-bread, which they were very 
fond of, especially when dipped in molasses; they had also a great liking 
for tea and coffee, when well sweetened. As iron weapons and tools of 
almost every kind are in much request among them, whenever they came 
on board they were always very attentive to me, crowding around me at 
the forge, as if to see in what manner I did my work, and in this way 
became quite familiar; a circumstance, as will be seen in the end, of 
great importance to me. On the nineteenth, the king came again on 
board and was invited by the captain to dine with him. He had much 
conversation with Captain Salter, and informed him that there-were plenty 
of wild ducks and geese near Friendly Cove, on which the captain made 
him a present of a double-barreled fowling-piece with which he appeared 
to be greatly pleased and soon after went on shore. 

On the twentieth, we were nearly ready for our departure, having taken 
in what wood and water we were in want of. The next day Maquina 
came on board with nine pair of wild ducks, as a present, at the same 
time he brought with him the gun, one of the locks of which he had 
broken, telling the captain that it was peshalc , that is bad. Captain Salter 
was very much offended at this observation, and considering it as a mark 
of contempt for his present, he called the king a liar, adding other op¬ 
probrious terms, and taking the gun from him tossed it indignantly into 
the cabin and calling me to him said, “John, this fellow has broken this 
beautiful fowling-piece, see if you can mend it:” on examining it I told 
him that it could be done.—As I have already observed, Maquina knew 
a number of English words, and, unfortunately, understood but too 
well the meaning of the reproachful terms that the captain addressed to 
him.—He said not a word in reply, but his countenance sufficiently ex¬ 
pressed the rage he felt, though he exerted himself to suppress it, and I 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES 


391 

observed him, while the captain was speaking, repeatedly put his hand 
to his throat and rub it upon his bosom, which, he afterward told me, was 
to keep down his heart, which was rising into his throat and choking him. 
He soon after went on shore with his men, evidently much discomposed. 

On the morning of the twenty-second, the natives came off' to us, as 
usual, with salmon, and remained on board, when about noon Maquina 
came along side with a considerable number of his chiefs and men in 
their canoes, who, after going though the customary examination were 
admitted into the ship. He had a whistle in his hand, and over his face 
a very ugly mask of wood representing the head of some wild beast, 
appeared to be remarkably good humored and gay, and while his people 
sung and capered about the deck, entertaining us with a variety of antic 
tricks and gestures, he blew his whistle to a kind of tune which seemed 
to regulate their motions. As Captain Salter was walking on the quarter¬ 
deck amusing himself with their dancing, the king came up to him and 
inquired when he intended to go to sea?—he answered, to-morrow.— 
Maquina then said, “You love salmon—much in Friendly Cove, why not 
go then and catch some?”—The captain thought that it would be very 
desirable to have a good supply of these fish for the voyage, and on con¬ 
sulting with Mr. Delouisa, the first mate, it was agreed to send part of 
* of the crew on shore after dinner with the seine in order to procure a 
quantity—Maquina and his chiefs staid and dined on board, and after 
dinner the chief mate went off with nine men in the jolly-boat and yawl 
to fish at Friendly Cove, having set the steward on shore at our watering 
place to wash the captain’s clothes. Shortly after the departure of the 
boats I went down to my vice-bench in the steerage, where I was em¬ 
ployed in cleaning muskets. I had not been there more than an hour 
when I heard the men hoisting in the long-boat, which, in a few minutes 
after, was succeeded by a great bustle and confusion on deck. I im¬ 
mediately ran up the steerage stairs, but scarcely was my head above 
deck, when I was caught by the hair by one of the savages, and lifted from 
my feet; fortunately for me, my hair being short, and the ribbon with 
which it was tied slipping, I fell from his hold into the steerage. As I was 
falling, he struck at me with an ax, which cut a deep gash in my fore¬ 
head, and penetrated the skull, but in consequence of his losing his hold, I 
luckily escaped the full force of the blow; which, otherwise, would have 
cleft my head in two. I fell, stunned and senseless, upon the floor—how 
long I continued in this situation I know not, but on recovering my senses 
the first thing that I did, was to try to get up; but so weak was I, from 
the loss of blood, that I fainted and fell. 

I was, however, soon recalled to my recollection by three loud shouts or 
yells from the savages, which convinced me that they had got possession 
of the ship. It is impossible for me to describe my feelings at this terrific 
sound.—Some faint idea may be formed of them by those who have known 
what it is to half awaken from a hideous dream and still think it real. 
Never, no, never, shall I lose from my mind, the impression of that 
dreadful moment. I expected every instant to share the wretched fate 
of my unfortunate companions; and when I heard the song of triumph, 
by which these infernal yells was succeeded, my blood ran cold in my 
veins. Having at length sufficiently recovered my senses to look around me, 
after wiping the blood from eyes, I saw that the hatch of the steerage 
was shut. This was done, as I afterward discovered, by order of Maquina, 
who, on seeing the savage strike at me with the ax, told him not to hurt 
me, for I was the armorer, and would be useful to them in repairing 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


392 

their arms; while, at the same time, to prevent any of his men from injuring 
me, he had the hatch closed. But to me this circumstance wore a very 
different appearance, for I thought that these barbarians had only pro¬ 
longed my life in order to deprive me of it by the most cruel tortures. 

I remained in this horrid state of suspense for a very long time, when 
at length the hatch was opened, and Maquina, calling me by name, 
ordered me to come up. I groped my way up as well as I was able, 
being almost blinded with the blood that flowed from my wound, and so 
weak as with difficulty to walk. The king, on perceiving my situation, 
ordered one of his men to bring a pot of water to wash the blood from 
my face, which having done, I was able to see distinctly with one of my 
eyes, but the other was so swollen from my wound that it was closed. 
But what a terrific spectacle met my eyes: six naked savages, standing 
in a circle around me, covered with the blood of my murdered comrades, 
with their daggers uplifted in their hands, prepared to strike. I now 
thought my last moment had come, and recommended my soul to my 
Maker. The king, who, as I have already observed, knew enough of 
English to make himself understood, entered the circle, and placing 
himself before me, addressed me nearly in the following words—“John— 
I speak—you no say no—You say no—daggers come!” He then asked 
me if I would be his slave during my life—If I would fight for him in his 
battles—If I would repair his muskets and make daggers and knives for 
him — with several other questions, to all of which I was careful to 
answer, yes. He then told me that he would spare my life, and ordered 
me to kiss his hands and feet to show my submission to him, which I did. 
In the meantime his people were very clamorous to have me put to death, 
so that there should be none of us left to tell our story to our countrymen 
and prevent them from coming to trade with them; but the king, in the 
most determined manner opposed their wishes, and to his favor am 1 
wholly indebted for my being yet among the living. 

As I was busy at work at the time of the attack, I was without my coat, 
and what with the coldness of the weather, my feebleness from loss of 
blood, the pain of my wound, and the extreme agitation and terror that I 
still felt, I shook like a leaf, which the king observing, went into the cabin, 
and bringing up a great-coat that belonged to the captain, threw it over 
my shoulders, telling me to drink some rum from a bottle which he handed 
me at the same time, giving me to understand that it would be good for 
for me and keep me from trembling as I did. I took a draught of it, 
after which, taking me by the hand, he led me to the quarter-deck, where 
the most horrid sight presented itself that ever my eyes witnessed—the 
heads of our unfortunate captain and his crew, to the number of twenty- 
five, were all arranged in a line, and Maquina ordering one of his people 
to bring a head, asked me whose it was: I answered, the captain's; in 
like manner the others were showed me, and I told him the names, except¬ 
ing a few that were so horribly mangled that I was not able to recognize 
them. I now discovered that all our unfortunate crew had been massa¬ 
cred, and learned that, after getting possession of the ship, the savages 
had broke open the arm chest and magazine, and supplying themselves 
with ammunition and arms, sent a party on shore to attack our men who 
had gone thither to fish, and being joined by numbers from the village, 
without difficulty overpowered and murdered them, and cutting oft' their 
heads, brought them on board, after throwing their bodies into the sea. 
On looking upon the deck, I saw it entirely covered with the blood of my 
poor comrades, whose throats had been cut with their own jack-knives, 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


393 

the savages having seized the opportunity while they were busy hoisting 
in the boat to grapple with them and overpower them by their numbers ; 
in the scuffle the captain was thrown overboard, and dispatched by those 
in the canoes, who immediately cut off his head. What I felt on this 
occasion, may be more readily conceived than expressed. 

Alter I had answered his questions, Maquina took my silk handker¬ 
chief Irom my neck and bound it around my head, placing over the wound 
a leaf of tobacco, of which we had a quantity on board. This was done 
at my desire, as I had often found, from personal experience, the benefit 
of this application to cuts. 

Maquina then ordered me to get the ship under weigh for Friendly 
Cove. This I did by cutting the cables and sending some of the natives 
aloft to loose the sails, which they performed in a very bungling manner. 
But they succeeded so far in loosing the jib and topsails, that, with the 
advantage of a fair wind, I succeeded in getting the ship into the Cove, 
where, by order of the king, I run her ashore, on a sandy beach, at eight 
o’clock at night. We were received by the inhabitants of the village, 
men, women, and children, with loud shouts of joy, and a most horrible 
drumming with sticks upon the roofs and sides of their houses, in which 
they had also stuck a great number of lighted pine torches, to welcome 
their king’s return and congratulate him on the success of his enterprize. 

Maquina then took me on shore to his house—which was very large 
and filled with people—where I was received with much kindness by the 
women, particularly those belonging to the king, who had no less than 
nine wives, all of whom came around me expressing much sympathy for 
my misfortune, gently stroking and patting my head in an encouraging 
and soothing manner, with words expressive of condolence. 

In the meantime, all the warriors of the tribe, to the number of five 
hundred, had assembled at the king’s house to rejoice for their success. 
They exulted greatly in having taken our ship, and each one boasted of 
his own particular exploits in killing our men, but they were in general 
much dissatisfied with my having been suffered to live, and were very 
urgent with Maquina to deliver me to them to be put to death, which he 
obstinately refused to do, telling them that he had promised me my life, 
and would not break his word; and that beside, I knew how to repair and 
to make arms, and would be of great use to them. 

The king then seated me by him and ordered his women to bring him 
something to eat, when they set before him some dried clams and train 
oil, of which he ate very heartily, and encouraged me to follow his ex¬ 
ample, telling me to eat much and take a great deal of oil which would 
make me strong and fat; notwithstanding his praise of this new kind of 
food, I felt no disposition to indulge in it, both the smell and taste being 
loathsome to me; and had it been otherwise, such was the pain I endured, 
the agitation of my mind, and the gloominess of my reflections, that I 
should have felt very little inclination for eating. Not satisfied with his 
first refusal to deliver me up to them, the people again became clamorous 
that Maquina should consent to my being killed, saying that not one of 
us ought to be left alive to give information to others of our countrymen 
and prevent them from coming to trade, or induce them to revenge the 
destruction of our ship, and they at length became so boisterous that he 
caught up a large club in a passion and drove them all out of the house. 
During this scene a son of the king, about eleven years old, attracted 
no doubt by the singularity of my appearance came up to me: I caressed 
him; he returned my attentions with much apparent pleasure, and 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


394 

considering this as a fortunate opportunity to gain the good will of the father, 
I took the child on my knee, and cutting the metal buttons from off the 
coat I had on, I tied them around his neck. At this he was highly 
delighted, and became so much attached to me that he would not quit 
me. 

The king appeared much pleased with my attention to his son, and 
telling me that it was time to goto sleep, directed me to lie with his son 
next to him, as he was afraid lest some of his people would come while 
he was asleep and kill me with their daggers. I lay down as he ordered 
me, but neither the state of my mind nor the pain I felt would allow me to 
sleep. About midnight I was greatly alarmed by the approach of one 
of the natives, who came to give information to the king that there was 
one of the white men alive, who had knocked him down as he went on 
board the ship at night. This Maquina communicated to me. giving me 
to understand that as soon as the sun rose he should kill him. I endeav¬ 
ored to persuade him to spare his life, but he bade me be silent and go 
to sleep. I said nothing more, but lay revolving in my mind what method 
I could devise to save the life of this man. What a consolation, thought 
I, what a happiness would it prove to me in my forlorn state among these 
heathen, to have a Christian and one of my own countrymen for a com¬ 
panion, and how greatly would it alleviate and lighten the burden of my 
slavery. As I was thinking of some plan for his preservation, it all at 
once came into my mind that this man was probably the sail-maker of the 
ship, named Thompson, as I had not seen his head among those on 
deck, and knew that he was below, at work upon the sails, not long before 
the attack. The more I thought of it the more probable it appeared to 
me, and as Thompson was a man nearly forty years of age, and had an 
old look, I conceived it would be easy to make him pass for my father, 
and by this means prevail on Maquina to spare his life. Toward morning 
I fell into a doze, but was awakened with the first beams of the sun by the 
king, who told me that he was going to kill the man who was on board the 
ship, and ordered me to accompany him. I rose and followed him, leading 
with me the young prince his son. 

On coming to the beach I found all the men of the tribe assembled. 
The king addressed them, saying that one of the white men had been 
found alive on board the ship, and requested their opinion as to saving 
his life or putting him to death. They were unanimously for the first: 
this determination he made known to me. Having arranged my plan, I 
asked him, pointing to the boy whom I still held by the hand, if he loved 
his son, he answered that he did; I then asked the child if he loved his 
father, and on his replying in the affirmative, I said “ And I also love mine.” 
I then threw myself on my knees at Maquina’s feet, and implored him, 
with tears in my eyes, to spare my father’s life, if the man on board should 
prove to be him, telling him that if he killed my father it was my wish 
that he should kill me too, and that if he did not I would kill myself— 
and that he would thus lose my services; whereas, by sparing my father’s 
life he would preserve mine, which would be of great advantage to him 
by my repairing and making arms for him. Maquina appeared moved 
by my entreaties and promised not to put the man to death if he should 
be my father. He then explained to his people what I had said, and 
ordered me to go on board and tell the man to come on shore. To my 
unspeakable joy on going into the hold, I found that my conjecture 
was true, Thompson was there, he had escaped without any injury, ex¬ 
cepting a slight wound in the nose, given him by one of the savages with 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


395 

a knife, as he attempted to come on deck, during the scuffle. Finding 
the savages in possession of the ship, as he afterward informed me, he 
secreted himself in the hold, hoping for some chance to make his escape— 
but that the Indian who came on board in the night approaching the place 
where he was, he supposed himself discovered, and being determined to 
sell his life as dearly as possible, as soon as he came within his reach, 
he knocked him down, but the Indian immediately springing up, ran off 
at full speed.—I informed him in a few words that all our men had been 
killed; that the king had preserved my life, and had consented to spare 
his on the supposition that he was my father, an opinion which he must 
be careful not to undeceive them in, as it was his only safety. After 
giving him his cue, I went on shore with him and presented him to 
Maquina, who immediately knew him to be the sail-maker and was much 
pleased, observing that he could make sails for his canoe.—He then took 
11 s to his house and ordered something for us to eat. 

On the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth, the natives were busily employed 
in taking the cargo out of the ship, stripping her of her sails and rigging, 
cutting away the spars and masts, and, in short, rendering her as complete 
a wreck as possible; the muskets, ammunition, cloth, and all the principal 
articles taken from her, being deposited in the king’s house. 

While they were thus occupied, each one taking what he liked, my 
companion and myself being obliged to aid them, I thought it best to 
secure the accounts and papers of the ship, in hopes that on some future 
day I might have it in my power to restore them to the owners. With this 
view I took possession of the captain’s writing-desk which contained the 
most of them, together with some paper and implements for writing. I 
had also the good fortune to find a blank account book, in which I resolved, 
should it be permitted me, to write an account of our capture and the 
most remarkable occurrences that I should meet with during my stay 
among these people, fondly indulging the hope that it would not be long 
before some vessel would arrive to release us. I likewise found in the 
cabin, a small volume of sermons, a Bible, and a common prayer-book of 
the Church of England, which furnished me and my comrade great con¬ 
solation in the midst of our mournful servitude, and enabled me, under 
the favor of Divine Providence, to support, with firmness, the miseries 
of a life which I might otherwise have found beyond my strength to 
endure. As these people set no value upon things of this kind, I found 
no difficulty in appropriating them to myself, by putting them in my chest, 
which, though it had been broken open and rifled by the savages, as I still 
had the key, I without much difficulty secured. In this I also put some 
small tools belonging to the ship, with several other articles, particularly 
a journal kept by the second mate, Mr. Ingraham, and a collection of 
drawings and views of places taken by him, which I had the good fortune 
to preserve, and on my arrival at Boston, I gave them to a connection of 
his, the honorable Judge Dawes, who sent them to his family in New 
York. 

On the twenty-sixth, two ships were seen standing in for Friendly Cove. 
At their first appearance the inhabitants were thrown into great confusion, 
but soon collecting a number of muskets and blunderbusses, ran to the 
shore, from whence they kept up so brisk a fire at them, that they were 
evidently afraid to approach nearer, and after firing a few rounds of grape- 
shot which did no harm to any one, they wore ship and stood out to sea. 
These ships, as I afterward learned, were the Mary and Juno of Boston. 
They were scarcely out of sight when Maquina expressed much regret 


396 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


that he had permitted his people to fire at. them, being apprehensive that 
they would give information to others in what manner they had been re¬ 
ceived, and prevent them from coming to trade with him. A few days 
after hearing of the capture of the ship, there arrived at Nootka a great 
number of canoes filled with savages from no less than twenty tribes to 
the north and south. 

Maquina, who was very proud of his new acquisition, was desirous of 
welcoming these visitors in the European manner. He accordingly 
ordered his men, as the canoes approached, to assemble on the beach with 
loaded muskets and blunderbusses, placing Thompson at the cannon 
which had been brought and laid upon two long sticks of timber in 
front of the village, then taking a speaking-trumpet in his hand he 
ascended with me the roof of his house, and began drumming or beating 
upon the boards with a stick most violently. Nothing could be more 
ludicrous than the appearance of this motley group of savages collected 
on the shore, dressed as they were, with their ill-gotten finery, in the 
most fantastic manner, some in women’s smocks, taken from our cargo, 
others in Kotsacks , (or cloaks,) of blue, red or yellow broadcloth, with 
stockings drawn over their heads, and their necks hung round with 
numbers of powder-horns, shot-bags, and cartridge-boxes; some of them 
having no less than ten muskets a piece on their shoulders, and five or 
six daggers in their girdles. Diverting, indeed, was it to see them all 
squatted upon the beach, holding their muskets perpendicularly, with the 
butt pressed upon the sand instead of against their shoulders, and in this 
position awaiting the order to fire. Maquina, at last, called to them with 
his trumpet to fire, which they did in the most awkward and timid manner, 
with their muskets hard pressed upon the ground as above mentioned. 
At the same moment the cannon was fired by Thompson, immediately on 
which they threw themselves back and began to roll and tumble over the 
sand as if they had been shot, when suddenly springing up they began 
a song of triumph, and running backward and forward upon the shore, 
with the wildest gesticulations, boasted of their exploits and exhibited as 
trophies what they had taken from us. When the ceremony was con¬ 
cluded, Maquina invited the strangers to a feast at his house, consisting 
of whale blubber, smoked herring spawn, and dried fish and train oil, of 
which they ate most plentifully. The feast being over, the trays out of 
which they ate, and other things, were immediately removed to make 
room for the dance which was to close the entertainment. 

On this occasion Maquina gave away no less than one hundred muskets, 
the same number of looking-glasses, four hundred yards of cloth, and 
twenty casks of powder, beside other things. After receiving these 
presents, the strangers retired on board their canoes, for so numerous 
were they that Maquina would not sutfer any but the chiefs to sleep 
in the houses; and in order to prevent the property from being pillaged 
by them, he ordered Thompson and myself to keep guard, during the 
night, armed with cutlasses and pistols. In this manner tribes of savages 
from various parts of the coast, continued coming for several days, bringing 
with them, blubber, oil, herring spawn, dried fish and clams, for which 
they received in return, presents of cloth, etc., after which they in 
general immediately returned home. 

Early on the morning of the eighteenth, the ship was discovered to be 
on fire. This was owing to one of the savages having gone on board 
with a firebrand at night for the purpose of plunder, some sparks from 
which fell into the hold, and communicating with some combustibles soon 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES- 


397 

enveloped the whole in flames. The natives regretted the loss of the ship 
the more as a great part of her cargo still remained on board. To my 
companion and myself it was a most melancholy sight, for with her dis¬ 
appeared from our eyes every trace of a civilized country; but the dis¬ 
appointment we experienced was still more severely felt, for we had 
calculated on having the provision to ourselves, which would have fur¬ 
nished us with a stock for years, as whatever is cured with salt, together 
with most of our other articles of food, is never eaten by these people. 
I had luckily saved all my tools, excepting the anvil, and the bellows 
which were attached to the forge, and from their weight had not been 
brought on shore. We had also the good fortune, in looking over what 
had been taken from the ship, to discover a box of chocolate and a case 
of Port wine, which, as the Indians were not fond of it, proved a great 
comfort to us for some time, and from one of the natives I obtained a 
nautical almanac, which had belonged to the captain, and which was of 
great use to me in determining the time. 

About two days after, on examining their booty, the savages found a 
tierce of rum, with which they were highly delighted, as they have 
become very fond of spirituous liquors since their intercourse with the 
whites. This was toward evening, and Maquina, having assembled all 
the men at his house, gave a feast, at which they drank so freely of the 
rum, that in a short, time they became so extremely wild and frantic that 
Thompson and myself, apprehensive for our safety, thought it prudent 
to retire privately into the woods, where we continued till past midnight. 
On our return, we found the women gone, who are always very temperate, 
drinking nothing but water, having quitted the house and gone to the other 
huts to sleep, so terrified were they at the conduct of the men, who all 
lay stretched out on the floor in a state of complete intoxication. How 
easy, in this situation, would it have been for us to have dispatched or 
made ourselves masters of our enemies, had there been any ship near 
to which we could have escaped, but as we were situated, the attempt 
would have been madness. 

The burning of our ship, which we had lamented so much, as depriving 
us of so many comforts, now appeared to us in a very different light, for 
had the savages got possession of the rum, of which there were nearly 
twenty puncheons on board, we must inevitably have fallen a sacrifice 
to their fury in some of their moments of intoxication. This cask, 
fortunately, and a case of gin, was all the spirits they obtained from the 
ship. To prevent the recurrence of similar danger, I examined the 
cask, and finding still a considerable quantity remaining, I bored a small 
hole in the bottom with a gimblet, which, before morning, to my great 
joy, completely emptied it. 

By this time the wound in my head began to be much better, so that 
I could enjoy some sleep, which I had been almost deprived of by the 
pain, and, though I was still feeble from the loss of blood and my 
sufferings, I found myself sufficiently well to go to work at my trade, in 
making for the king and his wives bracelets and other small ornaments 
of copper or steel, and in repairing the arms, making use of a large 
square stone for the anvil, and heating my metal in a common wood fire. 
This was very gratifying to Maquina and his women particularly, and 
secured me their good will. 

In the meantime great numbers from the other tribes kept continually 
flocking to Nootka, bringing with them, in exchange for the ship’s plunder, 
such quantities of provision, that, notwithstanding the little success that 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


398 

Maquina mot with in whaling this season, and their gluttonous waste, 
always eating to excess when they have it, regardless of the morrow, 
seldom did the natives experience any want of food during the summer. 
As to myself and companion, we fared as they did, never wanting for 
such provision as they had, though we were obliged to eat it cooked in 
their manner and with train oil as a sauce, a circumstance not a little un¬ 
pleasant, both from their uncleanly mode of cooking, and many of the 
articles of their food which, to a European, are very disgusting, but, as 
the saying is, hunger will break through stone walls; and we found, at 
times, in the blubber of sea animals and the flesh of the dog fish, loath¬ 
some as it in general was, a very acceptable repast. 

But much oftener would poor Thompson, who was no favorite with 
them, have suffered from hunger had it not been for my furnishing him 
with provision.—This I was enabled to do from my work, Maquina 
allowing me the privilege, when not employed for him, to work for my¬ 
self in making bracelets and other ornaments of copper, fish-hooks, 
daggers, etc., either to sell to the tribes who visited us, or for our own 
chiefs, who, on these occasions, beside supplying me with as much as 
I wished to eat, and a sufficiency for Thompson, almost always made me 
a present of a European garment taken from the ship, or some fathoms 
of cloth, which were made up by my comrade, and enabled us to go 
comfortably clad for some time, or small bundles of penknives, razors, 
scissors, etc., for one of which we could almost always procure from the 
natives two or three fresh salmon, cod, or halibut; or dried fish, clams 
and herring spawn from the stranger tribes; and had we only been per¬ 
mitted to cook them after our own way, as we had pots, and other uten¬ 
sils belonging to the ship, we should not have had much cause of 
complaint in this respect; but so tenacious are these people of their 
customs, particularly in the article of food and cooking, that the king 
always obliged me to give whatever provisions I bought to the women to 
cook—and one day finding Thompson and myself on the shore employed 
in boiling down sea-water into salt, on being told what it was, he was 
very much displeased, and taking the little we had procured, threw it 
into the sea. In one instance alone, as a particular favor, he allowed 
me to boil some salmon in my own way, when I invited him and his 
queen to eat with me; they tasted it, but did not like it, and made their 
meal of some of it that I had cooked in their country fashion. 

My health being at length re-established, and my wound healed, 
Thompson became very importunate for me to begin my journal, and as 
I had no ink, proposed to cut his finger to supply me with blood for the 
purpose whenever I should want it. On the first of June I accordingly 
commenced a regular diary, but had no occasion to make use of the 
expedient suggested by my comrade, having found a much better sub¬ 
stitute in the expressed juice of a certain plant, which furnished me with 
a bright green color, and after making a number of trials I at length 
succeeded in obtaining a very tolerable ink, by boiling the juice of the 
blackberry with a mixture of finely powdered charcoal and filtering 
it through a cloth. This I afterward preserved in bottles and found it 
answer very well, so true is it that “ necessity is the mother of 
invention.” As for quills I found no difficulty in procuring them, when¬ 
ever I wanted, from the crows and ravens with which the beach was 
almost always covered, attracted by the offal of whales, seals, etc., and 
which were so tame that I could easily kill them with stones, while a 
large clam-shell furnished me with an inkstand. 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


399 

The extreme solicitude of Thompson, that I should begin my journal, 
might be considered as singular in a man who neither knew how to write 
or read—a circumstance, by the way, very uncommon in an American— 
were we less acquainted with the force of habit, he having been for 
many years at sea. and accustomed to consider the keeping of a journal 
as a thing indispensable. This man was born in Philadelphia, and when 
eight years old, ran away from his friends, and entered as a cabin boy on 
board a ship bound to London; on his arrival there, finding himself in 
distress, he engaged as an apprentice to the captain of a Collier, from 
whence he was impressed on board an English man-of-war, and continued 
in the British naval service about twenty-seven years, during which he 
was present at the engagement under Lord Howe with the French fleet 
in June. 1794; and when peace was made between England and France, 
was discharged. He was a very strong and powerful man, an expert 
boxer, and perfectly fearless; indeed so little was his dread of danger, 
that, when irritated, he was wholly regardless of his life. Of this the 
following will furnish a sufficient proof: 

One evening, about the middle of April, as I was at the house of one 
of the chiefs, where I had been employed on some work for him, word 
was brought me that Maquina was going to kill Thompson. I immedi¬ 
ately hurried home, where I found the king in the act of presenting a 
loaded musket at Thompson, who was standing before him with his 
breast bared, and calling on him to fire. I instantly stepped up to 
Maquina, who was foaming with rage, and addressing him in soothing 
words, begged him, for my sake, not to kill my father, and at length suc¬ 
ceeded in taking the musket from him and persuading him to sit down. 
On inquiring into the cause of his anger, I learned that while Thompson 
was lighting the lamps in the king’s room, Maquina having substituted 
our’s for their pine torches, some of the boys began to teaze him, run¬ 
ning around him and pulling him by the trowsers; among the most 
forward of whom was the young prince. This caused Thompson to 
spill the oil, which threw him into such a passion, that, without caring 
what he did, he struck the prince so violent a blow in his face with his 
fist as to knock him down. The sensation excited among the savages 
by an act which was considered as the highest indignity, and a profan¬ 
ation of the sacred person of majesty may be easily conceived. The 
king was immediately acquainted with it, who, on coming in and seeing 
his son’s face covered with blood, seized a musket and began to load it, 
determined to take instant revenge on the audacious offender; and had 
I arrived a few minutes later than I did, my companion would certainly 
have paid with his life for his rash and violent conduct. I found the 
utmost difficulty in pacifying Maquina, who, for a long time after, could 
not forgive Thompson, but would repeatedly say, “John, you die— 
Thompson kill.” But to appease the king was not all that was necessary. 
In consequence of the insult offered to their prince, the whole tribe held 
a council, in which it was unanimously resolved that Thompson should 
be put to death in the most cruel manner. I, however, interceded so 
strenuously with Maquina for his life, telling him that if my father was 
killed, I was determined not to survive him, that he refused to deliver 
him up to the vengeance of his people, saying, that for John’s sake they 
must consent to let him live. The prince, who, after I had succeeded 
in calming his father, gave me an account of what had happened, told 
me that it was wholly out of regard to me, as Thompson was my father, 
that his life had been spared; for that if any one of the tribe should 


400 NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 

dare to lift a hand against him in anger, he would most certainly be put 
to death. 

Yet even this narrow escape produced not much effect on Thompson, 
or induced him to restrain the violence of his temper. For not many 
weeks after, he was guilty of a similar indiscretion, in striking the eldest 
son of a chief, who was about eighteen years old, and, according to their 
custom, was considered as a Tyee, or chief himself, in consequence of 
his having provoked him by calling him a white slave. This affair 
caused great commotion in the village, and the tribe was very clamorous 
for his death, but Maquina would not consent. I used frequently to 
remonstrate with him on the imprudence of his conduct, and beg him to 
govern his temper better, telling him it was our duty, since our lives 
were in the power of these savages, to do nothing to exasperate them; 
but all I could say on this point availed little; for so bitter was the hate 
he felt for them, which he was no way backward in manifesting, both by 
his looks and actions, that he declared he never would submit to their 
insults; and that he had much rather be killed than be obliged to live 
among them; adding, that he only wished he had a good vessel and some 
guns, and he would destroy the whole of the cursed race; for to a brave 
sailor like him, who had fought the French and Spaniards with glory, 
it was a punishment worse than death to be a slave to such a poor, 
ignorant, despicable set of beings. 

As for myself, I thought very differently. I had determined from the 
first of my capture to adopt a conciliating conduct toward them, and 
conform myself, as far as was in my power, to their customs and mode 
of thinking, trusting that the same divine goodness that had rescued me 
from death would not always suffer me to languish in captivity among 
these heathen. With this view, I sought to gain their good will by 
always endeavoring to assume a cheerful countenance, appearing pleased 
with their sports and buffoon tricks, making little ornaments for the wives 
and children of the chiefs, by which means I became quite a favorite with 
them, and fish-hooks, daggers, etc., for themselves. As a farther re¬ 
commendation to their favor, and what might eventually prove of the 
utmost importance to us, I resolved to learn their language, which, in 
the course of a few months residence, I so far succeeded in acquiring, 
as to be able in general to make myself well understood. I likewise 
tried to persuade Thompson to learn it as what might prove necessary 
to him. But he refused, saying, that he hated both them and their cursed 
lingo, and would have nothing to do with it. 

By pursuing this conciliatory plan, so far did I gain the good will of 
the savages, particularly the chiefs, that I scarcely ever failed experien¬ 
cing kind treatment from them, and was received with a smile of welcome 
at their houses, where I was always sure of having something given me 
to eat, whenever they had it; and many a good meal have I had from them, 
when they themselves were short of provisions and suffering for the want 
of them. 

But to return to our unhappy situation. Though my comrade and 
myself fared as well, and even better than we could have expected 
among these people, considering their customs and mode of living, yet 
our fears lest no ship would come to our release, and that we should 
never more behold a Christian country, were to us a source of constant 
pain. Our principal consolation in this gloomy state was to go on Sun¬ 
days, whenever the weather would permit, to the borders of a fresh 
water pond, about a mile from the village, where, after bathing, and 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


401 

putting on clean clothes, we would seat ourselves under the shade of a 
beautiful pine, while I read some chapters in the Bible, and the prayers 
appointed by our Church for the day, ending our devotions with a fervent 
prayer to the Almighty that he would deign still to watch over and pre¬ 
serve our lives, rescue us from the hands of the savages, and permit us 
once more to behold a Christian land. In this manner were the greater 
part of our Sundays passed at Nootka; and I felt grateful to heaven, 
that amidst our other sufferings, we were at least allowed the pleasure 
of offering up our devotions unmolested; for Maquina, on my explaining 
to him, as well as was in my power, the reason of our thus retiring at 
this time, far from objecting, readily consented to it. 

In July, we at length thought that the hope of delivery we had so 
long anxiously indulged, was on the point of being gratified. A ship 
appeared in the offing; but, alas! our fond hopes vanished almost as 
soon as formed; for, instead of standing in for the shore, she passed to 
the northward and soon disappeared. 

On the third of September, the whole tribe quitted Nootka, according 
to their constant practice, in order to pass the autumn and winter at 
Tashees and Cooptee, the latter lying about thirty miles up the sound in 
a deep bay, the navigation of which is very dangerous from the great 
number of reefs and rocks with which it abounds. On these occasions, 
everything is taken with them, even the planks of their houses, in order 
to cover their new dwellings. 

Tashees is pleasantly situated, and in a most secure position from the 
winter storms, in a small vale or hollow, on the south shore, at the foot 
of a mountain. The principal object in coming to this place, is the 
facility it affords these people of providing their winter stock of provi¬ 
sions, which consists principally of salmon, and the spawn of that fish; 
to which may be added herring and sprats, and herring spawn. The 
salmon are taken at Tashees principally in pots or wears. This pot 
or wear is placed at the foot of a fall or rapid, where the water is not 
very deep, and the fish, driven from above with long poles, are inter¬ 
cepted and caught in the wear, from whence they are taken into the 
canoes. In this manner, I have seen more than seven hundred salmon 
caught in the space of fifteen minutes. I have also sometimes known a 
few of the striped bass taken in this manner, but rarely. 

At such times, there is great feasting and merriment among them; 
the women and female slaves being busily employed in cooking, or in 
curing, the fish for their winter stock; which is done by cutting off the 
heads and tails, splitting them, taking out the backbone, and hanging 
them up in their houses to dry. They also dry the halibut and cod, but 
these, instead of curing whole, they cut up into small pieces for that 
purpose, and expose to the sun. Such is the immense quantity of these 
fish, and they are taken with such facility, that I have known upward of 
twenty-five hundred brought into Maquina’s house at once, and, at one 
of their great feasts, have seen one hundred or more cooked in one of 
their largest tubs. 

I was, however, very apprehensive, soon after our arrival at this place, 
that I should be deprived of the satisfaction of keeping my journal, as 
Maquina one day, observing me writing in it, inquired of me what I was 
doing; and, when I endeavored to explain it, by telling him that I was 
keeping an account of the weather, he said it was not so, and that I was 
speaking bad about him, and telling how he had taken our ship and 
killed the crew, so as to inform my countrymen, and that if he ever saw 
26 


402 NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 

me writing in it again, he would throw it into the fire. I was much 
rejoiced that he did no more than threaten, and became very cautious 
afterward not to let him see me write. 

Not long after, I finished some daggers for him, which I polished 
highly; these pleased him much, and he gave me directions to make a 
cheetoolth, in which I succeeded so far to his satisfaction, that he gave 
me a present of cloth sufficient to make me a complete suit of raiment, 
beside other things. Thompson, also, who had become rather more of 
a favorite than formerly, since he had made a fine sail for his canoe, and 
some garments for him out of European cloth, about this time, com¬ 
pleted another, which was thought by the savages a most superb dress. 
This was a kootsuk , or mantle, a fathom square, made entirely of Euro¬ 
pean vest patterns of the gayest colors. These were sewed together, 
in a manner to make the best show, and bound with a deep trimming of 
the finest otter skin, with which the arm-holes were also bordered ; 
while the bottom was further embellished with five or six rows of gilt 
buttons, placed as near as possible to each other. Nothing could exceed 
the pride of Maquina when he first put on this royal robe, decorated, like 
the coat of Joseph, with all the colors of the rainbow, and glittering 
with the buttons, which, as he strutted about, made a tinkling, while he 
repeatedly exclaimed, in a transport of exultation, Kleiv sliish katsuk — 
wick kum atack Nootka .—A fine garment—Nootka can’t make him. 

The king, finding that I was desirous of learning their language, was 
much delighted, and took great pleasure in conversing with me. On 
one of these occasions, he explained to me his reasons for cutting off 
our ship, saying that he bore no ill will to my countrymen, but that he 
had been several times treated very ill by them. The first injury of 
which he had cause to complain, was done him by a Captain Tawning- 
ton, who commanded a schooner which passed a winter at Friendly 
Cove, where he was well treated by the inhabitants. This man, taking 
advantage of Maquina’s absence, who had gone to the Wickinninish to 
procure a wife, armed himself and crew, and entered the house where 
there were none but women, whom he threw into the greatest conster¬ 
nation, and, searching the chests, took away all the skins, of which Ma¬ 
quina had no less than forty of the best; and that, about the same time, 
four of their chiefs were barbarously killed by a Captain Martinez, a 
Spaniard. That, soon after, Captain Hanna, of the Sea-Otter, in conse¬ 
quence of one of the natives having stolen a chisel from the carpenter, 
fired upon their canoes, which were along side, and killed upward of 
twenty of the natives, of whom several were tyees or chiefs; and that 
he himself, being on board the vessel, in order to escape, was obliged to 
leap from the quarter-deck, and swim for a long way under water. 

These injuries had excited in the breast of Maquina, an ardent desire 
of revenge, the strongest passion of the savage heart, and though many 
years had elapsed since their commission, still they were not forgotten; 
and the want of a favorable opportunity alone prevented him from sooner 
avenging them. Unfortunately for us, the long wished for opportunity 
presented itself in our ship, which Maquina, finding not guarded with the 
usual vigilance of the north-west traders, and feeling his desire of 
revenge rekindled by the insult offered by Captain Salter, formed a plan 
of attacking, and, on his return, called a counsel of his chiefs, and com¬ 
municated it to them, acquainting them with the manner in which he 
had been treated. No less desirous of avenging this affront offered 
their king, than the former injuries, they readily agreed to his proposal, 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


403 

which was to go on board without arms, as usual, but under different 
pretexts, in greater numbers, and wait his signal for the moment of 
attacking their unsuspecting victims. The execution of this scheme, as 
the reader knows, was unhappily too successful. 

On the thirty-first of December, all the tribe quitted Tashees for 
Cooptee, whither they go to pass the remainder of the winter, and com- 
. plete their fishing, taking off everything with them in the same manner as 
at Nootka. The natives now began to take the herring and sprat in im¬ 
mense quantities, with some salmon, and there was nothing but feasting 
from morning until night. 

On the twenty-fifth of February, we quitted Cooptee, and returned to 
Nootka. With much joy did Thompson and myself again find ourselves 
in a place where, notwithstanding the melancholy recollections which it 
excited, we hoped before long to see some vessel arrive to our relief. 
Not long after our return, a son of Maquina’s sister, a boy about eleven 
years old, who had been for some time declining, died. Tootoosch, his 
father, was esteemed the first warrior of the tribe, and was one who had 
been peculiarly active in the destruction of our ship, having killed two 
of our poor comrades whose names were Hall and Wood. About the 
time of our removal to Tashees, while in the enjoyment of the highest 
health, he was suddenly seized with a fit of delirium, in which he fan¬ 
cied that he saw the ghosts of those two men constantly standing by 
him, and threatening him, so that he would take no food, except what 
was forced into his mouth. 

When Maquina was first informed by his sister of the strange conduct 
of her husband, he immediately went to his house, taking us with him; 
suspecting that his disease had been caused by us, and that the ghosts 
of our countrymen had been called thither by us, to torment him. We 
found him raving about Hall and Wood, saying that they were pcshak , 
that is, bad. Maquina then placed some provision before him, to see if 
he would eat. On perceiving it, he put forth his haitd to take some, but 
instantly withdrew it, with signs of horror, saying that Hall and Wood 
were there, and would not let him eat. Maquina then, pointing to us, 
asked if it was not John and Thompson who troubled him. Wik , he 
replied, that is, no; John klushish — Thompson klushisli — John and 
Thompson are both good; then, turning to me, and patting me on the 
shoulder, he made signs to me to eat. I tried to persuade him that 
Hall and Wood were not there, and that none were near him but our¬ 
selves: he said, I know very well you do not see them, but I do. At 
first, Maquina endeavored to convince him that he saw nothing, and to 
laugh him out of his belief; but, finding that all was to no purpose, he 
at length became serious, and asked me if I had ever seen any one 
affected in this manner, and what was the matter with him. I gave him 
to understand, pointing to his head, that his brain was injured, and that 
he did not see things as formerly. Being convinced by Tootoosch’s 
conduct, that we had no agency in his indisposition, on our return home, 
Maquina asked me what was done in my country in similar cases. I 
told him that such persons were closely confined, and sometimes tied 
up and whipped, in order to make them better. After pondering for 
some time, he said that he should be glad to do anything to relieve him, 
and that he should be whipped; and immediately gave orders to some of 
his men to go to Tootoosch’s house, bind him, and bring him to his, in 
order to undergo the operation. Thompson was the person selected to 
administer this remedy, which he undertook very readily, and for that 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


404 

purpose provided himself with a good number of spruce branches, with 
which he "whipped him most severely, laying it on with the best will im¬ 
aginable, while Tootoosch displayed the greatest rage, kicking, spitting, 
and attempting to bite all who came near him. This was too much for 
Maquina, who, at length, unable to endure it longer, ordered Thompson 
to desist, and Tootoosch to be carried back, saying that, if there was no 
other way of curing him but by whipping, he must remain mad. The 
application of the whip produced no beneficial effect on Tootoosch, for 
he afterward became still more deranged; in his fits of fury sometimes 
seizing a club, and beating his slaves in a most dreadful manner, and 
striking and spitting at all who came near him, until, at length, his wife, 
no longer daring to remain in the house with him, came with her son 
to Maquina’s. 

Early in June, Tootoosch, the crazy chief, died. As soon as he was 
dead, the body, according to their custom, was laid out on a plank, hav¬ 
ing the head bound round with a red bark fillet, which is, with them, an 
emblem of mourning and sorrow. After laying some time in this man¬ 
ner, he was wrapped in an otter skin robe, and three fathoms of I-whaw 
being put about his neck, he was placed in a large coffin, or box, about 
three feet deep, which was ornamented on the outside with two rows of 
the small white shells. In this, the most valuable articles of his pro¬ 
perty were placed with him, among which were no less than twenty-four 
prime sea-otter skins. The place of burial was a large cavern on the 
side of a hill, at a little distance from the village, in which, after depo¬ 
siting the coffin carefully, all the attendants repaired to Maquina’s house, 
where a number of articles belonging to the deceased, consisting of 
blankets, pieces of cloth, etc., were burned by a person appointed by 
Maquina for that purpose, dressed and painted in the highest style, with 
his head covered with white down, who, as he put in the several pieces, 
one by one, pouffed upon them a quantity of oil to increase the flame, 
in the intervals between making a speech and playing off a variety of 
buffoon tricks, and the whole closed with a feast and dance from Sat- 
sat-sak-sis, the king’s son. 

The man who performed the ceremony of burning, on this occasion, 
was a very singular character, named Kinneclimmets. He was held in 
high estimation by the king, though only of the common class, probably 
from his talent for mimicry and buffoonry, and might be considered as a 
kind of king’s jester, or rather as combining in his person the character 
of a buffoon with that of master of ceremonies and public orator to his 
majesty, as he was the one who, at feasts, always regulated the place of 
the guests, delivered speeches on receiving or returning visits, beside 
amusing the company at all their entertainments, with a variety of mon¬ 
key pranks and antic gestures, which appeared to these savages the 
height of wit and humor, but would be considered as extremely low by 
the least polished people. 

This man Kinneclimmets , was particularly odious to Thompson, who 
would never join in the laugh at his tricks, and when he began, would 
almost always quit the house with a very surly look, and an exclamation 
of, cursed fool! which Maquina, who thought nothing could equal the 
cleverness of his Climmer-habbee , used to remark with much dissatis¬ 
faction, asking me, why Thompson never laughed, observing that I must 
have had a very good tempered woman indeed for my mother, as my 
father was so very ill-natured a man. Among those performances that 
gained him the greatest applause, was his talent of eating to excess, for 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


405 

I have known him devour, at one meal, no less than seventy-five large 
herring; and, at another time, when a great feast was given by Maquina, 
he undertook, after drinking three pints of oil by way of a whet, to eat 
four dried salmon, and five quarts of spawn, mixed up with a gallon of 
train oil, and actually succeeded in swallowing the greater part of this 
mess, until his stomach became so overloaded, as to discharge its 
contents in the dish. 

Our situation had now become unpleasant in the extreme. The sum¬ 
mer was so far advanced, that we nearly despaired of a ship arriving to 
our relief; and, with that expectation, almost relinquished the hope of 
ever having it in our power to quit this savage land. We were treated, 
too, with less indulgence than before, both Thompson and myself being 
obliged, in addition to our other employments, to perform the laborious 
task of cutting and collecting fuel, which we had to bring on our shoul¬ 
ders from nearly three miles distant, as it consisted wholly of dry trees, 
all of which near the village had been consumed. Another thing which, 
to me in particular, proved an almost constant source of vexation and 
disgust, and which living among them had not in the least reconciled me 
to, was their extreme filthiness,,not only eating fish, especially the whale, 
when in a state of offensive putridity, but, while at their meals, of mak¬ 
ing a practice of taking the vermin from their heads or clothes, and 
eating them, by turns thrusting their fingers into their hair, and into the 
dish, and spreading their garments over the tubs in which the provision 
was cooking, in order to set in motion their inhabitants. Fortunately for 
Thompson, he regarded this much less than myself; and, when I used 
to point out to him any instances of their filthiness in this respect, he 
would laugh and reply, Never mind, John; the more good things, the 
better. I must, however, do Maquina the justice to state, that he was 
much neater, both in his person and eating, than were the others, as was 
likewise his queen, owing, no doubt, to his intercourse with foreigners, 
which had given him ideas of cleanliness, for I never saw either of 
them eat any of these animals; but, on the contrary, they appeared not 
much to relish this taste in others. Their garments, also, were much 
cleaner, Maquina having been accustomed to give his away when they 
became soiled, until after he discovered that Thompson and myself kept 
ours clean by washing them, when he used to make Thompson do the 
same for him. 

In the latter part of July, Maquina informed me that he was going to 
war with the A-y-charts , a tribe living about fifty miles to the south, on 
account of some controversy that had arisen the preceding summer, and 
that I must make a number of daggers for his men, and cheetoolths for 
his chiefs, which having completed, he wished me to make for his own 
use a weapon of quite a different form, in order to dispatch his enemy 
by one blow on the head—it being the calculation of these nations, on 
going to war, to surprise their adversaries while asleep. This was a 
steel dagger, or more properly a spike, of about six inches long, made 
very sharp, set at right angles in an iron handle fifteen inches long, 
terminating, at the lower end, in a crook or turn, so as to prevent its being 
wrenched from the hand, and at the upper end, in a round knob or head, 
from whence the spike protruded. This instrument I polished highly, 
and, the more to please Maquina, formed on the back of the knob the 
resemblance of a man’s head, with the mouth open, substituting for eyes 
black beads, which 1 fastened in with red sealing-wax. This pleased 
him much, and was greatly admired by his chiefs, who wanted me to 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


406 

make similar ones for them, but Maquina would not suffer it, reserving 
for himself alone this weapon. When these people have finally deter¬ 
mined on war, they make it an invariable practice, for three or four weeks 
prior to the expedition, to go into water five or six times a day, where 
they wash and scrub themselves from head to foot with bushes, inter¬ 
mixed with briars, so that their bodies and faces will often be entirely 
covered with blood. Maquina, having informed Thompson and myself 
that he should take us with him, was very solicitous that we should bathe 
and scrub ourselves in the same way with them, telling me that it would 
harden our skins, so that the weapons of the enemy would not pierce 
them, but as we felt no great inclination to amuse ourselves in this 
manner, we declined it. 

The expedition consisted of forty canoes, carrying from ten to twenty 
men each. Thompson and myself armed ourselves with cutlasses and 
pistols, but the natives, although they had a plenty of European arms, 
took with them only their daggers and cheetoolths, with a few bows and 
arrows, the latter being about a yard in length, and pointed with copper, 
muscle-shell, or bone; the bows are four feet and a half long, with 
strings made of whale sinew. 

To go to A-y-chart, we ascended, from twenty to thirty miles, a river 
about the size of that of Tashees, the banks of which are high and 
covered with wood. At midnight, we came in sight of the village, 
which was situated on the west bank, near the shore, on a steep hill, diffi¬ 
cult of access, and well calculated for defense. It consisted of fifteen 
or sixteen houses, smaller than those at Nootka, and built in the same 
style, but compactly placed. By Maquina’s directions, the attack was 
deferred until the first appearance of dawn, as he said that was the time 
when men slept the soundest. 

At length, all being ready for the attack, we landed with the greatest 
silence, and, going around so as to come upon the foe in the rear, clam¬ 
bered up the hill; and while the natives, as is their custom, entered the 
several huts, creeping on all-fours, my comrade and myself stationed 
ourselves without, to intercept those who should attempt to escape, or 
come to the aid of their friends. I wished, if possible, not to stain my 
hands in the blood of any fellow creature, and, though Thompson would 
gladly have put to death all the savages in the country, he was too brave 
to think of attacking a sleeping enemy. Having entered the houses, on 
the war-whoop being given by Maquina, as he seized the head of the 
chief, and gave him the fatal blow, all proceeded to the work of, death. 
The A-y-charts, being thus surprised, were unable to make resistance, 
and, with the exception of a very few, who were so fortunate as to make 
their escape, were all killed, or taken prisoners, on condition of becoming 
slaves to their captors. I, also, had the good fortune to make four cap¬ 
tives, whom Maquina, as a favor, permitted me to consider as mine, and 
occasionally employ them in fishing for me; as for Thompson, who 
thirsted for revenge, he had no wish to take any prisoners, but with 
his cutlass, the only weapon he would employ against them, succeeded 
in killing seven stout fellows who came to attack him, an act which 
obtained him great credit with Maquina and the chiefs, who, after this, 
held him in much higher estimation, and gave him the appellation of 
Ckehiel-suma-har, it being the name of a very celebrated warrior of 
their nation in ancient times, whose exploits were the constant theme of 
their praise. After having put to death all the old and infirm of either 
sex, as is the barbarous practice of these people, and destroyed the 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


407 

buildings, we re-embarked, with our booty in our canoes, for Nootka, 
where we were received with great demonstrations of joy by the women 
and children, accompanying our war-song with a most furious drumming 
on the houses. Repeated applications had been made to Maquina, by 
a number of kings or chiefs, to purchase me, especially after he had 
shown them the harpoon I had made for him, which he took much 
pride in, but he constantly refused to part with me on any terms. 

With hearts full of dejection, and almost lost to hope, no ship having 
appeared off Nootka this season, did my companion and myself accom¬ 
pany the tribe, on their removal in September, to Tashees; relinquishing, 
in consequence, for six months, even the remotest expectation of relief. 
Soon after our establishment there, Maquina informed me that he and 
his chiefs had held council, both before and after quitting Nootka, in 
which they had determined that I must marry one of their women, urg¬ 
ing a reason to induce me to consent, that, as there was now no proba¬ 
bility of a ship coming to Nootka to release me, I must consider myself 
as destined to pass the remainder of my life with them, that the sooner 
I conformed to their customs the better, and that a wife and family would 
render me more contented and satisfied with their mode of living. I 
remonstrated against this decision, but to no purpose, for he told me that 
should I refuse, both Thompson and myself would be put to death, tell¬ 
ing me, however, that if there were none of the women of his tribe 
that pleased me, he would go with me to some of the other tribes, where 
he would purchase for me such a one as I should select. Reduced to 
this sad extremity, with death on the one side, and matrimony on the 
other, I thought proper to choose what appeared to me the least of the 
two evils, and consented to be married, on condition, that, as I did not 
fancy any of the Nootka women, I should be permitted to make choice 
of one from some other tribe. 

This being settled, the next morning, by daylight, Maquina, with about 
fifty men, in two canoes, set out with me for A-i-tiz-zart, taking with 
him a quantity of cloth, a number of muskets, sea-otter skins, etc., for 
the purchase of my bride. With the aid of our paddles and sails, 
being favored with a fair breeze, we arrived some time before sunset at 
the village. Our arrival excited a general alarm, and the men hastened 
to the shore, armed with the weapons of their country, making many 
warlike demonstrations, and displaying much zeal and activity. We, in 
the meantime, remained quietly seated in our canoes, where we remained 
for about half an hour, when the messenger of the chief, dressed in 
their best manner, came to welcome us, and invite us on shore to eat. 
We followed him, in procession, to the chief’s house, Maquina at our 
head, taking care to leave a sufficient number in the boats to protect the 
property. When we came to the house, we were ushered in with much 
ceremony, and our respective seats pointed out to us, mine being next 
to Maquina. by his request. 

After having been regaled with a feast of herring spawn and oil, Ma¬ 
quina asked me if I saw any among the women who were present that 
I liked. I immediately pointed out to him a young girl of about seven¬ 
teen, the daughter of Upquesta , the chief, who was sitting near him by 
her mother. On this, Maquina, making a sign to his men, arose, and, 
taking me by the hand, walked into the middle of the room, and sent 
off two of his men to bring the boxes containing the presents from the 
canoes. In the meantime, Kinneclimmets, the master of ceremonies, 
made himself ready for the part he was to act, by powdering his hair 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


408 

with the white down. When the chests were brought in, specimens of 
the several articles were taken out, and showed by our men, one of 
whom held up a musket, another a skin, a third a piece of cloth, etc. 
On this, Kinneclirnmets stepped forward, and, addressing the chief, 
informed him that all these belonged to me, mentioning the number of 
each kind, and that they were offered him for the purchase of his 
daughter Eu-stoch-ee-exqua , as a wife for me. As he said this, the men 
who held up the various articles, walked up to the chief, and with a very 
stern and morose look, the complimentary one on these occasions, threw 
them at his feet. Immediately on which, all the tribe, both men and 
women, who were assembled on this occasion, set up a cry of, Klack- 
ko-tyee, that is, Thank ye, chief. His men, after this ceremony, having 
returned to their places, Maquina, rose, and, in a speech of more than 
half an hour, said much in my praise to the A-i-tiz-zart chief, telling 
him that I was as good a man as themselves, differing from them only in 
being white,- that I was, beside, acquainted with many things of which 
they were ignorant; that I knew how to make daggers, cheetoolths, and 
harpoons, and was a very valuable person, whom he was determined to 
keep always with him; praising me, at the same time, for the goodness 
of my temper, and the manner in which I had conducted since I had 
been with them, observing that all the people of Nootka, and even the 
children loved me. 

When he had ceased, the A-i-tiz-zart chief arose amidst the acclama¬ 
tions of his people, and began with setting forth the many good qualities 
and accomplishments of his daughter; that he loved her greatly, and, 
as she was his only one, he could not think of parting with her. He 
spoke in this manner for some time, but finally concluded by consenting 
to the proposed union, requesting that she might be well used and kindly 
treated by her husband. When Upquesta had finished his speech, he 
directed his people to carry back the presents, which Maquina had given 
him, to me, together with two young male slaves to assist me in fishing. 
These, after having been placed before me, were, by Maquina’s men, 
taken on board the canoes. After this, our company returned to lodge 
at Upquesta’s, except a few who were left on board the canoes to watch 
the property. In the morning, I received from the chief his daughter,* 
with an earnest request that I would use her well, which I promised 
him; when, taking leave of her parents, she accompanied me with 
apparent satisfaction on board of the canoe. 

At about five in the morning, we reached Tashees, where we found 
all the inhabitants collected on the shore to receive us. We were wel¬ 
comed with loud shouts of joy, and exclamations of Wocash, and the 
women, taking my bride under their charge, conducted her to Maquina’s 
house, to be kept with them for ten days; it being a universal custom, 
as Maquina informed me, that no intercourse should take place between 
the new married pair during that period. 

The term of my restriction over, Maquina assigned me, as an apart¬ 
ment, the space in the upper part of his house, between him and his 
elder brother, whose room was opposite. Here, I established myself 
with my family, consisting of myself and wife, Thompson, and the little 
Sat-sat-sak-sis, who had always been strongly attached to me, and now 
solicited his father to let him live with me, to which he consented. This 
boy was handsome, extremely well formed, amiable, and of a pleasant, 
sprightly disposition. I used to take a pleasure in decorating him with 
rings, bracelets, ear-jewels, etc., which I made for him of copper, and 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


409 

ornamented and polished them in my best manner. I was also very 
careful to keep him free from vermin of every kind, washing him and 
combing his hair every day. These marks of attention were not only 
very pleasing to the child, who delighted in being kept neat and clean, 
as well as in being dressed oft in his finery, but were highly gratifying 
both to Maquina and his queen, who used to express much satisfaction 
at my care of him. 

In making my domestic establishment, I determined, as far as possible, 
to live in a more comfortable and cleanly manner than the others. For 
this purpose, I erected, with planks, a partition about three feet 
high, between mine and the adjoining rooms, and made three bedsteads, 
of the same, which I covered with boards, for my family to sleep on, 
which I found much more comfortable than sleeping on the floor amidst 
the dirt. 

Fortunately, I found my Indian princess both amiable and intelligent, 
for one whose limited sphere of observation must necessarily give rise 
to but a few ideas. She was extremely ready to agree to anything that 
I proposed relative to our mode of living, was very attentive in keeping 
her garments and person neat and clean, and appeared, in every respect, 
solicitous to please me. She was, as I have said, about seventeen; her 
person was small, but well formed, as were her features; her complexion 
was, without exception, fairer than any of the women, with considerable 
color in her cheeks; her hair long, black, and much softer than is usual 
with them, and her teeth small, even, and of a dazzling whiteness, while 
the expression of her countenance indicated sweetness of temper and 
modesty. She would, indeed, have been considered as very pretty in 
any country, and, excepting Maquina’s queen, was by far the handsomest 
of any of their women. 

With a partner possessing so many attractions, many may be apt to 
conclude, that I must have found myself happy, at least comparatively 
so; but far otherwise was it with me—a compulsory marriage with the 
most beautiful and accomplished person in the world, can never prove a 
source of real happiness, and, in my situation, I could not but view this 
connection as a chain that was to bind me down to this savage land, and 
prevent my ever again seeing a civilized country; especially, when, in 
a few days after, Maquina informed me that there had been a meeting 
of his chiefs, in which it was determined that, as I had married one of 
their women, I must be considered as one of them, and conform to their 
customs; and that, in future, neither myself nor Thompson should wear 
our European clothes, but dress in Kutsaks like themselves. This order 
was to me most painful, but I persuaded Maquina, at length, so far to 
relax in it as to permit me to wear those I had at present, which were 
almost worn out, and not to compel Thompson to change his dress, 
observing that, as he was an old man, such a change would cause his 
death. 

Though, in some respects, my situation was rendered more comfort¬ 
able since my marriage, as I lived in a more cleanly manner, and had 
my food better and more neatly cooked, of which, beside, I had always 
a plenty, my slaves generally furnishing me, and Upquesta never failing 
to send me an ample supply by the canoes that came from A-i-tiz-zart; 
still, from my being obliged, at this season of the year, to change my 
accustomed clothing, and to dress like the natives, with only a piece of 
cloth about two yards long, thrown loosely around me, my European 
clothes having been for some time entirely worn out, I suffered more 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


410 

than I can express from the cold, especially as I was compelled to per¬ 
form the laborious task of cutting and bringing the fire-wood, which was 
rendered still more oppressive to me, from my comrade, for a conside¬ 
rable part of the winter, not having it in his power to lend me his aid, in 
consequence of an attack of the rheumatism in one of his knees, with 
which he suffered for more than four months, two or three weeks of which 
he was so ill as to be unable to leave the house. On the twentieth of 
February, we returned to our summer quarters at Nootka, but, on my 
part, with far different sensations than the last spring, being now almost 
in despair of any vessel arriving to release us, or our being permitted to 
depart if there should. Soon after our return, as preparatory to the 
whaling season, Maquina ordered me to make a good number of har¬ 
poons for himself and his chiefs, several of which I had completed, with 
some lances, when, on the sixteenth of March, I was taken very ill with 
a violent cholic, caused, I presume, from my having suffered so much 
from the cold in going without proper clothing. For a number of hours, 
I was in great pain, and expected to die; and, on its leaving me, I was 
so weak as scarcely to be able to stand, while I had nothing comforting 
to take, nor anything to drink but cold water. The feebleness in which 
the violent attack of my disorder had left me, the dejection I felt at the 
almost hopelessness of my situation, and the want of warm clothing and 
proper nursing, though my Indian wife, as far as she knew how, was 
always ready, and even solicitous, to do everything for me she could, 
still kept me very much indisposed, which Maquina perceiving, he 
finally told me, that, if I did not like living with my wife, and that was 
the cause of my being so sad, I might part with her. This proposal I 
readily accepted, and the next day Maquina sent her back to her father. 
On parting with me, she discovered much emotion, begging me that I 
would suffer her to remain until I had recovered, as there was no one 
who would take so good care of me as herself. But when I told her 
that she must go, for that I did not think I should ever recover, which, 
in truth, I but little expected, and that her father would take good care 
of her, and treat her more kindly than Maquina, she took an affectionate 
leave, telling me that she hoped I should soon get better, and left her 
two slaves to take care of me. 

Though I rejoiced at her departure, I was greatly affected with the 
simple expressions of her regard for me, and could not but feel strongly 
interested for this poor girl, who, in all her conduct toward me, had dis¬ 
covered so much mildness and attention to my wishes; and, had it not 
been that I considered her as an almost insuperable obstacle to my being 
permitted to leave the country, I should, no doubt, have felt the depriva¬ 
tion of her society a real loss. After her departure, I requested Ma¬ 
quina, that, as I had parted with my wife, he would permit me to resume 
my European dress; for, otherwise, from not having been accustomed to 
dress like them, I should certainly die. To this he consented, and I 
once more became comfortably clad. Change of clothing, but, more 
than all, the hopes which I now began to indulge, that, in the course of 
the summer, I should be able to escape, in a short time restored me to 
health, so far, that I could again go to work in making harpoons for Ma¬ 
quina, who, probably, fearing that he should have to part with me, 
determined to provide himself with a good stock. 

It was now past mid-summer, and the hopes we had indulged of our 
release, became daily more faint; for, though we had heard of no less 
than seven vessels on the coast, yet none appeared inclined to venture to 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 4H 

Nootka. The destruction of the Boston, the largest, strongest, and best 
equipped ship, with much the most valuable cargo, of any that had ever 
been fitted out for the north-west trade, had inspired the commanders of 
others with a general dread of coming thither, lest they should share 
the same fate; and, though in the letter I wrote (imploring those who 
should receive them, to come to the relief of two unfortunate Christians 
who were suffering among heathen,) I stated the cause of the Boston’s 
capture, and that there was not the least danger in coming to Nootka, 
provided they would follow the directions I laid down; still I felt very 
little encouragement that any of these letters would come to hand, when, 
on the morning of the nineteenth of July, a day that will be ever held 
by me in grateful remembrance of the mercies of God, while I was em¬ 
ployed with Thompson in forging daggers for the king, my ears were 
saluted with the joyful sound of three cannon, and the cries of the 
inhabitants, exclaiming, Weena, weena, Mamethlee—that is, strangers, 
white men. 

Soon after, several of our people came running into the house, to 
inform me that a vessel, under full sail, was coming into the harbor. 
Though my heart bounded with joy, I repressed my feelings, and, 
affecting to pay no attention to what was said, told Thompson to be on 
his guard, and not betray any joy, as our release, and perhaps our lives, 
depended on our conducting ourselves so as to induce the natives to 
suppose we were not very anxious to leave them. We continued our 
works as if nothing had happened, when, in a few minutes after, Ma- 
quina came in, and, seeing us at work, appeared much surprised, and 
asked me if I did not know that a vessel had come. I answered, in a 
careless manner, that it was nothing to me. How, John, said he, you 
no glad go board. I replied that I cared very little about it, as I had 
become reconciled to their manner of living, and had no wish to go 
away. He then told me that he had called a council of his people 
respecting us, and that we must leave off work and be present at it. 

The men having assembled at Maquina’s house, he asked them what 
was their opinion should be done with Thompson and myself, now a 
vessel had arrived, and whether he had not better go on board himself 
to make a trade, and procure such articles as were wanted. Each one 
of the tribe who wished, gave his opinion. Some were for putting us 
to death, and pretending to the strangers that a different nation had cut 
off the Boston; while others, less barbarous, were for sending us fifteen 
or twenty miles back into the country until the departure of the vessel. 
These, however, were the sentiments of the common people, the chiefs 
opposing our being put to death, or injured, and several of them were 
for immediately releasing us; but this, if he could avoid it, by no means 
appeared to accord with Maquina’s wishes. 

With regard, however, to Maquina’s going on board the vessel, which 
he discovered a strong inclination to do, there wa$ but one opinion, all 
remonstrating against it, telling him that the captain would kill him, or 
keep him a prisoner, in consequence of his having destroyed our ship. 
When Maquina had heard their opinions, he told them that he was not 
afraid of being hurt from going on board the vessel, but that he would, 
however, in that respect, be guided by John, whom he had always found 
true. He then turned to me, and asked me if I thought there would be 
any danger in his going on board. I answered, that I was not surprised 
at the advice his people had given him, unacquainted as they were with 
the maimers of the white men, and judging them by their own; but, if 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


412 

they had been with them as much as I had, or even himself, they would 
think very different; that he had almost always experienced good and 
civil treatment from them, nor had he any reason to fear the contrary 
now, as they never attempted to harm those who did not injure them; 
and, if he wished to go on board, he might do it, in my opinion, with 
security. After reflecting a few moments, he said, with much apparent 
satisfaction, that, if I would write a letter to the captain, telling him 
good of him, that he had treated Thompson and myself kindly since we 
had been with him, and to use him well, he would go. It may readily 
be supposed that I felt much joy at this determination; but, knowing 
that the least incaution might annihilate all my hopes of escape, I was 
careful not to manifest it, and to treat his going or staying as a matter 
perfectly indifferent to me. I told him, that, if he wished me to write 
such a letter, I had no objection, as it was the truth, otherwise I could 
not have done it. The letter which I wrote was nearly in the following 
terms:— 

Nootka, July 19, 1805. 

To Captain -, of the brig -: 

Sir —The bearer of this letter is the Indian king by the name of Ma- 
quina. He was the instigator of the capture of the ship Boston, of 
Boston, in North America, John Salter, captain, and of the murder of 
twenty-five men of her crew, the two only survivors being now on shore; 
wherefore, I hope you will take care to confine him according to his 
merits, putting in your dead lights, and keeping so good a watch over 
him, that he cannot escape from you. By so doing, we shall be able to 
obtain our release in the course of a few hours. 

John R. Jewett, Armorer 

of the Boston, for himself and 

John Thompson, Sail-maker of said ship. 

I have been asked how I dared to write in this manner: my answer is, 
that, from my long residence among these people, I knew that I had little 
to apprehend from their anger on hearing of their king being confined, 
while they knew his life depended upon my release, and that they would 
sooner have given up five hundred white men, than have had him 
injured. This will serve to explain the little apprehension I felt at 
their menaces afterward; for, otherwise, sweet as liberty was to me, I 
should hardly have ventured on so hazardous an experiment. 

On my giving the letter to Maquina, he asked me to explain it to him. 
This I did, line by line, as he pointed them out with his finger, but in a 
sense very different from the real, giving him to understand that I had 
written to the captain, that, as he had been kind to me since I had been 
taken by him, that it was my wish that the captain should treat him 
accordingly, and give him what molasses, biscuit, and rum he wanted 
When I had finished, placing his finger, in a significant manner, on 
my name at the bottom, and eyeing me with a look that seemed to 
read my inmost thoughts, he said to me, “John, you no lie?” Never 
did I undergo such a scrutiny, or ever experience greater apprehensions 
than I felt at that moment, when my destiny was suspended on the 
slightest thread, and the least mark of embarrassment on mine, or sus¬ 
picion of treachery on his part, would probably have rendered my life 
the sacrifice. Fortunately, I was able to preserve my composure, and 
my being painted in the Indian manner, which Maquina had, since my 
marriage, required of me, prevented any change in my countenance from 




NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


413 

being noticed, and I replied, with considerable promptitude, looking at 
him in my turn, with all the confidence I could muster, “ Why do you 
ask me such a question, Tyee? Have you ever known me to lie?” 
“ No.” “ Then how can you suppose I should tell you a lie now, since 
I have never done it?” As I was speaking, he still continued looking 
at me, with the same piercing eye, but, observing nothing to excite his 
suspicion, he told me that he believed what I said was true, and (hat 
he would go on board, and gave orders to get ready his canoe. His 
chiefs again attempted to dissuade him, using every argument for that 
purpose, while his wives crowded around him, begging him on their 
knees not to trust himself with the white men. Fortunately for my 
companion and myself, so strong was his wish of going on board the 
vessel, that he was deaf to their solicitations, and, making no other reply 
to them, than “ John no lie,” left the house, taking four prime skins with 
him as a present to the captain. 

Scarcely had the canoe put off, when he ordered his men to stop, and, 
calling to me, asked me if I did not want to go on board with him. 
Suspecting this as a question merely intended to ensnare me, I replied, 
that I had no wish to do it, not having any desire to leave them. On going 
on board the brig, Maquina immediately gave his present of skins and 
my letter to the captain, who, on reading it, asked him into the cabin, 
where he gave him some biscuit and a glass of rum, at the same time 
privately directing his mate to go forward and return with five or six of 
the men armed. When they appeared, the captain told Maquina that 
he was his prisoner, and should continue so, until the two men, whom 
he knew to be on shore, were released, at the same time ordering him 
to be put in irons, and the windows secured, which was instantly done, 
and a couple of men placed as a guard over him. Maquina was greatly 
surprised and terrified at this reception; he, however, made no attempt 
to resist, but requested the captain to permit one of his men to come 
and see him. One of them was accordingly called, and Maquina said 
something to him, which the captain did not understand, but supposed 
to be an order to release us, when the man, returning to the canoe, it 
was paddled off, with the utmost expedition, to the shore. As the canoe 
approached, the inhabitants, who had all collected upon the beach, mani¬ 
fested some uneasiness at not seeing their king on board; but when, on 
its arrival, they were told that the captain had made him a prisoner, and 
that John had spoken bad about him in a letter, they all, both men and 
women, set up a loud howl, and ran backward and forward upon the 
shore, like so many lunatics, scratching their faces, and tearing the hair 
in handfuls from their heads. 

After they had beat about in this manner for some time, the men ran to 
their huts for their weapons, as if preparing to attack an invading enemy; 
while Maquina’s wives and the rest of the women came around me, 
and, throwing themselves on their knees, begged me with tears to spare 
his life; and Sat-sat-sak-sis, who kept constantly with me, taking me by 
the hand, wept bitterly, and joined his entreaties to theirs, that I would 
not let the white men kill his father. I told them not to afflict them¬ 
selves, that Maquina’s life was in no danger, nor would the least harm 
be done to him. 

The men were, however, extremely exasperated with me, more, par¬ 
ticularly the common people, who came running, in the most furious 
manner, toward me, brandishing their weapons, and threatening to cut 
me in pieces no bigger than their thumb nails, while others declared 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


414 

they would burn me alive, over a slow fire, suspended by my heels. All 
this fury, however, caused me but little alarm, as I felt convinced they 
would not dare to execute their threats while the king was on board the 
brig. The chiefs took no part in this violent conduct, but came to me 
and inquired the reason why Maquina had been thus treated, and if the 
captain intended to kill him. I told them that, if they would silence the 
people, so that I could be heard, I would explain all to them. They im¬ 
mediately put a stop to the noise, when I informed them that the cap¬ 
tain, in confining Maquina, had done it of his own accord, and only in 
order to make them release Thompson and myself, as he well knew we 
were with them, and, if they would do that, their king would receive no 
injury, but be well treated; otherwise, he would be kept a prisoner. As 
many of them did not appear to be satisfied with this, and began to 
repeat their murderous threats—Kill me, said I to them, if it is your 
wish, throwing open the bear skin which I wore; here is my breast, I 
am only one among so many, and can make no resistance; but, unless 
you wish to see your king hanging by his neck to that pole, pointing to 
the yard-arm of the brig, dnd the sailors firing at him with bullets, 
you will not do it. Oh, no! was the general cry; that must never be; 
but what must we do? I told them, that their best plan would be to 
send Thompson on board, to desire the captain to use Maquina well, 
until 1 was released, which would be soon. This they were perfectly 
willing to do, and I directed Thompson to go on board; but he objected, 
saying that he would not leave me alone with the savages. I told him 
not to be under any fear for me, for that, if I could get him off, I could 
manage well enough for myself; and that I wished him, immediately on 
getting on board the brig, to see the captain, and request him to keep 
Maquina close until I was released, as I was in no danger while he had 
him safe. 

When I saw Thompson off, I asked the natives what they intended to 
do with me. They said I must talk to the captain again, in another 
letter, and tell him to let his boat come on shore with Maquina, and that 
I should be ready to jump into the boat at the same time Maquina should 
jump on shore. I told them, that the captain, who knew that they had 
killed my shipmates, would never trust his men so near the shore, for 
fear they would kill them too, as they were so much more numerous; 
but that, if they would select any three of their number to go with me 
in a canoe, when we came within hail, I could desire the captain to send 
his boat with Maquina, to receive me in exchange for him. 

This appeared to please them, and, after some whispering among the 
chiefs, who, from what words I overheard, concluded, that if the captain 
should refuse to send his boat with Maquina, the three men would have 
no difficulty in bringing me back with them, they agreed to my proposal, 
and selected three of their stoutest men to convey me. Fortunately, 
having been for some time accustomed to see me armed, and suspecting 
no design on my part, they paid no attention to the pistols that I had 
about me. 

As I was going into the canoe, little Sat-sat-sak-sis, who could not 
bear to part with me, asked me, with an affecting simplicity, since I was 
going away to leave him, if the white men would not let his father come 
on shore, and not kill him. I told him not to be concerned, for that no 
one should injure his father, when, taking an affectionate leave of me, 
and again begging me not to let the white men hurt his father, he ran to 
comfort his mother, who was at a little distance, with the assurances I 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


415 

had given him. On entering the canoe, I seated myself in the prow, 
facing the three men, having determined, if it was practicable, from the 
moment I found Maquina was secured, to get on board the vessel before 
he was released, hoping, by that means, to be enabled to obtain the resto¬ 
ration of what property belonged to the Boston still remaining in the 
possession of the savages, which, I thought, if it could be done, a duty that 
I owed to the owners. As we came within hail of the brig, they at once 
ceased paddling, when, presenting my pistols at them, I ordered them 
instantly to go on, or 1 would shoot the whole of them. A proceeding 
so wholly unexpected threw them into great consternation, and resum¬ 
ing their paddles, in a few moments, to my inexpressible delight, I once 
•more found myself along side of a Christian ship, a happiness which I 
had almost despaired of ever again enjoying. All the crew crowded to 
the side to see me, as the canoe came up, and manifested much joy at 
my safety. I immediately leaped on board, where I was welcomed by 
the captain, Samuel Hill, of the brig Lydia of Boston, who congratulated 
me on my escape, informing me, that he had received my letter off Kla- 
iz-zart, from the chief Mackee Ulatilla, who came off himself in his 
canoe to deliver it to him, on which he immediately proceeded hither to 
aid me. I returned him my thanks, in the best manner I could, for his 
humanity, though I hardly knew what I said, such was the agitated state 
of my feelings at that moment, with joy for my escape, thankfulness to 
the Supreme Being, who had so mercifully preserved me, and gratitude 
to those whom he had rendered instrumental in my delivery, that I have 
no doubt, that what with my strange dress, being painted with red and 
black from head to foot, having a bear skin wrapped around me, and iny 
long hair, which I was not allowed to cut, fastened on the top of my head 
in a large bunch, with a sprig of green spruce, I must have appeared 
more like one deranged, than a rational creature; as Captain Hill after¬ 
ward told me, that he never saw anything in the form of man look so 
wild as I did when I first came on board. 

The captain then asked me into the cabin, where I found Maquina in 
irons, with a guard over him. He looked very melancholy, but, on see¬ 
ing me, his countenance brightened up, and he expressed his pleasure 
with the welcome of u Wocash, John;” when, taking him by the hand, 
I asked the captain’s permission to take off his irons, assuring him, that 
as I was with him, there was no danger of his being the least trouble¬ 
some. He accordingly consented, and I felt a sincere pleasure in free¬ 
ing from fetters a man, who, though he had caused the death of my poor 
comrades, had, nevertheless, always proved my friend and protector, and 
whom I had requested to be thus treated only with a view of securing 
my liberty. Maquina smiled, and appeared much pleased at this mark 
of attention from me. When I had freed the king from his irons, Cap¬ 
tain Hill wished to learn the particulars of our capture, observing that an 
account of the destruction of the ship and her crew had been received at 
Boston before he sailed, but'that nothing more was known, except that 
two of the men were living, for whose rescue the owners had offered a 
liberal reward; and that he had been able to get nothing out of the old 
man, whom the sailors had supplied so plentifully with grog, as to bring 
him too much by the head to give any information. 

I gave him a correct statement of the whole proceeding, together with 
the manner in which my life and that of my comrade had been pre¬ 
served. 'On hearing my story, he was greatly irritated against Maquina, 
and said he ought to be killed. I observed, that, however ill he might 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


416 

have acted in taking our ship, yet that it would, perhaps, be wrong to 
judge an uninformed savage with the same severity as a civilized per¬ 
son, who had the light of religion and the laws of society to guide him; 
that Maquina’s conduct in taking our ship arose from an insult that he 
thought he had received from Captain Salter, and from the unjustifiable 
conduct of some masters of vessels who had robbed him, and, without 
provocation, killed a number of his people; beside, that a regard for the 
safety of others ought to prevent his being put to death, as I had lived 
long enough with these people to know that revenge of an injury is held 
sacred by them, and that they would not fail to retaliate, should he kill 
their king, on the first vessel or boat’s crew that should give them an 
opportunity; and that, though he might consider executing him as but 
an act of justice, it would probably cost the lives of many Americans. 

The captain appeared to be convinced from what I said of the impolicy 
of taking Maquina’s life, and said that he would leave it wholly with me 
whether to spare or kill him, as he was resolved to incur no censure in 
either case. I replied, that I most certainly should never take the life 
of a man who had preserved mine, had I no other reason; but, as there 
was some of the Boston’s property still remaining on shore, I considered 
it a duty that I owed to those who were interested in that ship, to try to 
save it for them, and, with that view, I thought it would be well to keep 
him on board until it was given up. He concurred in this proposal, say¬ 
ing, if there was any of the property left, it most certainly ought to 
be got. 

During this conversation, Maquina was in great anxiety, as from what 
English he knew, he perfectly comprehended the subject of our delibe¬ 
ration, constantly interrupting me to inquire what we had determined to 
do with him; what the captain said; if his life would be spared; and if I 
did not think that Thompson would kill him. I pacified him as well as 
I was able, by telling him that he had nothing to fear from the captain, 
that he would not be hurt, and that if Thompson wished to kill him, 
which was very probable, he would not be allowed to do it. He would 
then remind me that I was indebted to him for my life, and that I ought to 
do by him as he had done by me. I assured him that such was my in¬ 
tention, and I requested him to remain quiet, and not to alarm himself, 
as no harm was intended him. But I found it extremely difficult to con¬ 
vince him of this, as it accorded so little with the ideas of revenge 
entertained by them. I told him, however, that he must restore all the 
property still in his possession, belonging to the ship. This he was per¬ 
fectly ready to do, happy to escape on such terms; but, as it was now 
past five, and too late for the articles to be collected and brought off, I 
told him that he must content himself to remain on board with me that 
night, and in the morning he should be set on shore as soon as the 
things were delivered. To this he agreed, on condition that I would 
remain with him in the cabin. I then went on deck, and the canoe that 
brought me having been sent back, I hailed the inhabitants, and told 
them that their king had agreed to stay on board until the next day, when 
he would return; but that no canoes must attempt to come near the 
vessel during the night, as they would be fired upon. They answered, 
Woho, woho —very well, very well, I then returned to Maquina, but so 
great were his terrors, that he would not allow me to sleep, constantly 
disturbing me with his questions, and repeating, “ John, you know when 
you was alone, and more than five hundred men were your enemies, I 
was your friend, and prevented them from putting you and Thompson to 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


417 

death,, and now I am in the power of your friends, you ought to do the 
same by me.” I assured him that he would be detained on board no 
longer than the property was released, and that, as soon as it was done, 
he would be set at liberty. 

At day-break, I hailed the natives, and told them that it was Maquina’s 
order that they should bring off the cannon and anchors, and whatever 
remained with them of the cargo of the ship. This they set about doing 
with the utmost expedition, transporting the cannon and anchors by lash¬ 
ing together two of their largest canoes, and covering them with planks; 
and, in the course of two hours, they delivered everything on board that 
I could recollect, with Thompson’s and my chest, containing the papers 
of the ship, etc. 

When everything belonging to the ship had been restored, Maquina 
was permitted to return in his canoe, which had been sent for him, with 
a present of what skins he had collected, which were about sixty, for 
the captain, in acknowledgment of his having spared his life and allowed 
him to depart unhurt; such was also the transport he felt, when Captain 
Hill came into the cabin and told him that he was at liberty to go, that 
he threw off his mantle, which consisted of four of the very best skins, 
and gave it to him, as a mark of his gratitude; in return for which, the 
captain presented him with a new great-coat and hat, with which he 
appeared much delighted. The captain then desired me to inform him 
that he should return to that part of the coast in November, and that he 
wished him to keep what skins he should get, which he would buy of 
him. This Maquina promised, saying to me at the same time, “ John, you 
know I shall be then at Tashees; but, when you come, make pow, (which 
means, fire a gun,) to let me know, and I will come down.” When he 
came to the side of the brig, he shook me cordially by the hand, and 
told me that he hoped I would come to see him again in a big ship, and 
bring much plenty of blankets, biscuit, molasses, and rum, for him and 
his son, who loved me a great deal, and that he would keep all the furs 
he got for me, observing, at the same time, that he should never more 
take a letter of recommendation from any one, or ever trust himself on 
board a vessel unless I was there; then, grasping both my hands, with 
much emotion, while the tears trickled down his cheeks, he bade me 
farewell, and stepped into the canoe, which immediately paddled him 
on shore. 

The brig being under weigh, immediately on Maquina’s quitting us, 
we proceeded to the northward, constantly keeping the shore in sight, 
and touching at various places for the purpose of trading. After a 
period of nearly four months from our leaving Nootka, we returned from 
the northward to Columbia river, for the purpose of procuring masts, 
etc., for our brig, which had suffered considerably in her spars during a 
gale of wind. Here, after providing ourselves with spars, we sailed for 
Nootka, where we arrived in the latter part of November. The tribe 
being absent, the agreed signal was given, by firing a cannon, and in a 
few hours after, a canoe appeared, which landed at the village, and, 
putting the king on shore, came off to the brig. Inquiry was imme¬ 
diately made by Kinneclimmets, who was one of the three men in the 
canoe, if John was there, as the king had some skins to sell them if he 
was. I then went forward and invited them on board, with which they 
readily complied, telling me that Maquina had a number of skins with 
him, but that he would not come on board unless I would go on shore 
for him. This I agreed to, provided they would remain in the brig in* 
27 


NARRATIVE OF A SAILOR AMONG SAVAGES. 


418 

the meantime. To this they consented, and the captain taking them into 
the cabin, treated them with bread and molasses. I then went on shore in 
the canoe, notwithstanding the remonstrances of Thompson and the cap¬ 
tain, who, though he wanted the skins, advised me by no means to put 
myself in Maquina’s power; but I assured him that I had no fear as 
long as those men were on board. As I landed, Maquina came up and 
welcomed me with much joy: on inquiring for the men, I told him that 
they were to remain until my return. “Ah, John,” said he, “ I see you are 
af;aid to trust me; but, if they had come with you, I should not have 
hurt you, though I should have taken good care not to let you go on 
board of another vessel.” He then took his chest of skins, and step¬ 
ping into the canoe, I paddled him along side of the brig, where he was 
received and treated by Captain Hill with the greatest cordiality, who 
bought of him his skins. He left us much pleased with his reception, 
inquiring of me how many moons it would be before I should come back 
again to see him and his son; saying that he would keep all his furs 
for me. 

As soon as Maquina had quitted us, we got under weigh and stood 
again to the northward. We had a prosperous passage to China, arriv¬ 
ing at Macao in December, from whence the brig proceeded to Canton. 
There I had the good fortune to meet a townsman and an old acquaint¬ 
ance, in the mate of an English East-Indiaman, named John Hill, 
whose father, a wealthy merchant in Hull, in the Baltic trade, was a 
next door neighbor to mine. Shortly after our arrival, the captain being 
on board the English ship, and mentioning his having had the good for¬ 
tune to liberate two men of the Boston’s crew from the savages, and 
that one of them was named Jewett, my f6rmer acquaintance immedi¬ 
ately came on board the brig to see me. 

Words can ill express my feelings on seeing him. Circumstanced as 1 
was, among persons who were entire strangers to me, to meet thus, in 
a foreign land, with one between whom and myself a considerable inti¬ 
macy had subsisted, was a pleasure that those alone who have been in a 
similar situation can properly estimate. He appeared, on his part, no 
less happy to see me, whom he supposed to be dead, as the account of 
our capture had been received in England some time before his sailing, 
and all my friends supposed me to have been murdered. 

He supplied me with a new suit of clothes and a hat, a small sum of 
money for my necessary expenses, and a number of little articles for 
sea-stores on my voyage to America. I also gave him a letter for my 
father, in which I mentioned my wonderful preservation and escape, 
through the humanity of Captain Hill, with whom I should return to 
Boston. This letter he inclosed to his father, by a ship that was just 
sailing, in consequence of which it was received much earlier than it 
otherwise would have been. 

We left China, in February, 1807, and after a pleasant voyage of one 
■ hundred and fourteen days, arrived at Boston. My feelings on once 
more finding myself in a Christian country, among a people speaking 
the same language with myself, may be more readily conceived than 
•expressed. In the post-oflice in that place, I found a letter for me from 
my mother, acknowledging the receipt of mine from China, expressing 
the great joy of my family on hearing of my being alive and well, whom 
>they had for a long time given up for dead. 


ADVENTURES 


OF 


PHILIP ASHTON, 


OF MASSACHUSETTS, WHO WAS TAKEN BT PIRATES, ESCAPED FROM THEM, AND DWELT 
FOR SIXTEEN MONTHS 


IN SOLITUDE ON A DESOLATE ISLAND. 


On Friday, the fifteenth of June, 1722, after being out some time in 
a schooner with four men and a boy, off Cape Sable, I stood in for Port 
Rossaway, designing to lie there all Sunday. Having arrived about four 
in the afternoon, we saw, among other vessels which had reached the port 
before us, a brigantine supposed to be inward bound from the West 
Indies. After remaining three or four hours at anchor, a boat from the 
brigantine came along side, with four hands, who leaped on deck, and 
suddenly drawing out pistols, and brandishing cutlasses, demanded the 
surrender both of ourselves and our vessel. All remonstrance was vain; 
nor, indeed, had we known who they were before boarding us, could we 
have made any effectual resistance, being only five men and a boy, and 
were thus under the necessity of submitting at discretion. We were not 
single in misfortune, as thirteen or fourteen fishing-vessels, were, in like 
manner, surprised the same evening. 

When carried on board the brigantine, I found myself in the hands 
of Ned Low, an infamous pirate, whose vessel had two great guns, four 
swivels, and about forty-two men. I was strongly urged to sign the 
articles of agreement among the pirates, and to join their number, which 
I steadily refused, and suffered much bad usage in consequence. At 
length being conducted, along with five of the prisoners, to the quarter¬ 
deck, Low came up to us with pistols in his hand, and loudly demanded, 
u Are any of you married men?” This unexpected question, added to 
the sight of the pistols, struck us all speechless; we were alarmed lest 
there was some secret meaning in his words, and that he would proceed 
to extremities, therefore none could reply. In a violent passion he 
cocked a pistol, and clapping it to my head, cried out, “ You dog, why 
’ don’t you answer?” swearing vehemently at the same time that he would 
shoot me through the head. I was sufficiently terrified by his threats and 
fierceness, but rather than lose my life in so trifling a matter, I ventured 
to pronounce, as loud as I durst speak, that I was not married. Here¬ 
upon he seemed to be somewhat pacified, and turned away. 

It appeared that Low was resolved to take no married men whatever, 
which often seemed surprising to me until I had been a considerable 
time with him. But his own wife had died lately before he became a 
pirate, and he had a young child at Boston, for whom he entertained such 
tenderness, on every lucid interval from drinking and reveling, that, on 
mentioning it, I have seen him sit down and weep plentifully. Thus I 



420 


ADVENTURES OF PHILIP ASHTON. 


concluded, that his reason for taking only single men, was, probably, that 
they might have no ties, such as wives and children, to divert them from 
his service, and render them desirous of returning home. The pirates 
finding force of no avail in compelling us to join them, began to use per¬ 
suasion instead of it. They tried to flatter me into compliance, by setting 
before me the share I should have in their spoils, and the riches which I 
should become master of; and all the time eagerly importuned me to 
drink along with them. But I still continued to resist their proposals, 
whereupon Low, with equal fury as before, threatened to shoot me through 
the head; and though I earnestly entreated my release, he and his people 
wrote my name, and that of my companions, in their books. 

On the nineteenth of June, the pirates changed the privateer, as they 
called their vessel, and went into a new schooner belonging to Marble¬ 
head, which they had captured. They then put all the prisoners, whom 
they designed sending home, on board of the brigantine, and sent her to 
Boston, which induced me to make another unsuccessful attempt for 
liberty; but though I fell on my knees to Low, he refused to let me go ; thus 
I saw the brigantine depart, with the whole captives, excepting myself 
and seven more. Very short time before she departed, I had nearly 
effected my escape ; for a dog belonging to Low being accidentally left 
on shore, he ordered some hands into a boat to bring it off. Thereupon 
two young men, captives, both belonging to Marblehead, rapidly leaped 
into the boat, and I, considering that if I could once get on shore, means 
might be found of effecting my escape, endeavored to go along with them. 
But the quarter-master, called Russell, catching hold of my shoulder, 
drew me back. As the young men did not return, he thought I was privy 
to their plot, and, with the most outrageous oaths, snapped his pistol, on my 
denying all knowledge of it. The pistol missing fire, however, only 
served to enrage him the more: he snapped it three times again, and as 
often it missed fire; on which he held it overboard, and then it went off. 
Russel on this drew his cutlass, and was about to attack me in the utmost 
fury, when I leaped down into the hold and saved myself. 

Off St. Michael’s, the pirates took a large Portuguese pink, laden with 
wheat, coming out of the road; and being a good sailer, and carrying 
fourteen guns, transferred their company into her. It afterward became 
necessary to careen her, whence they made three islands, called Triangles, 
lying about forty leagues to the eastward of Surinam. In heaving down 
the pink, Low had ordered so many men to the shrouds and yards, that 
the ports, by her heeling, got under water, and the sea rushing in, she 
overset: he and the doctor were then in the cabin, and as soon as he 
observed the water gushing in, he leaped out of the stern-port, while the 
doctor attempted to follow him. But the violence of the sea repulsed the 
latter, and he was forced back into the cabin. Low, however, contrived 
to thrust his arm into the port, and dragging him out, saved his life. 
Meanwhile, the vessel completely overset. Her keel turned out of the 
water; but as the hull filled, she sunk, in the depth of about six fathoms. 
The yard-arms striking the ground, forced the masts somewhat above 
the water; as the ship overset, the people got from the shrouds and yards, 
upon the hull, and as the hull went down, they again resorted to the 
rigging, rising a little out of the sea. 

Being an indifferent swimmer, I was reduced to great extremity; for, 
along with the other light lads, I had been sent up to the maintop-gallant 
yard; and the people of a boat, w r ho were now occupied in preserving 
the men refusing to take me in, I was compelled to attempt reaching the 


ADVENTURES OF PHILIP ASHTON. 


421 

buoy. This I luckily accomplished, and, as it was large, secured myself 
there until the boat approached. I once more requested the people to 
take me in, but they still refused, as the boat was full. I was uncertain 
whether they designed leaving me to perish in this situation; however, 
the boat being deeply laden, made wav very slowly, and one of my com¬ 
rades, captured at the same time with myself, calling to me to forsake 
the buoy and swim toward her, I assented, and reaching the boat, he 
drew me on board. Two men, John Bell, and Zana Guordon, were 
lost in the pink. Though the schooner in company was very near at 
hand, her people were employed mending their sails under an awning, 
and knew nothing of the accident until the boat full of men, got along 
side. 

The pirates having thus lost their principal vessel, and the greatest 
part of their provisions and water, were reduced to great extremities for 
want of the latter. They were unable to get a supply at the Triangles; 
nor, on account of calms and currents, could they make the island of 
Tobago. Thus they were forced to stand for Grenada, which they 
reached, after being on short allowance for sixteen days together. 
Grenada was a French settlement, and Low, on arriving, after having 
sent all his men, except a sufficient number to maneuver the vessel 
below, said he was from Barbadoes; that he had lost the water on board, 
and was obliged to put in here for a supply. The people entertained 
no suspicion of his being a pirate, but afterward, supposing him a smug¬ 
gler, thought it a good opportunity to make a prize of his vessel. Next 
day, therefore, they equipped a large sloop of seventy tons, and four guns, 
with about thirty hands, as sufficient for the capture, and came along side, 
while Low was quite unsuspicious of their design. But this being evi¬ 
dently betrayed by their number and actions, he quickly called ninety 
men on deck, and, having eight guns mounted, the French sloop became 
an easy prey. 

Provided with these two vessels, the pirates cruised about in the West 
Indies, taking seven or eight prizes, and at length arrived at the island 
of Santa Cruz, where they captured two more. While lying there, Low 
thought he stood in need of a medicine chest, and, in order to procure 
one, sent four Frenchmen, in a vessel he had taken, to St. Thomas’s, 
about twelve leagues distant, with money to purchase it; promising them 
liberty, and the return of all their vessels for the service. But he de¬ 
clared, at the same time, if it proved otherwise, he would kill the rest of 
the men, and burn the vessels. In little more than twenty-four hours, 
the Frenchmen returned with the object of their mission, and Low 
punctually performed his promise by restoring the vessel. 

Having sailed for the Spanish American settlements, the pirates de¬ 
scried two large ships, about half way between Carthagena and Portobello, 
which proved to be the Mermaid, an English man-of-war, and a Guineaman. 
They approached in chase until discovering the man-of-war’s great range 
of teeth, when they immediately put about, and made the best of their 
way off. The man-of-war then commenced the pursuit, and gained upon 
them apace, and I confess that my terrors were now equal to any that I 
had previously suffered; for I concluded that we should certainly be taken, 
and I should no less certainly be hanged for company’s sake: so true are 
the words of Solomon, “ A companion of fools shall be destroyed.” But 
the two pirate vessels finding themselves outsailed, separated, and Far¬ 
rington Spriggs, who commanded the schooner in which I was, stood in 
for the shore. The Mermaid observing the sloop with Low himself to 


ADVENTURES OF PHILIP ASHTON. 


m 

be the larger of the two, crowded all sail, and continued gaining still 
more, indeed until her shot flew over; but one of the sloop’s crew showed 
Low a shoal, which he could pass, and in the pursuit the man-of-war 
grounded. Thus the pirates escaped hanging on this occasion. Spriggs 
and one of his chosen companions, dreading the consequences of being 
captured and brought to justice, laid their pistols beside them in the 
interval, and pledging a mutual oath in a bumper of liquor, swore, if they 
saw no possibility of escape, to set foot to foot, and blow out each other’s 
brains. But standing toward the shore, they made Pickeroon Bay, and 
escaped the danger. 

Next we repaired to a small island called Utilla, about seven or eight 
leagues to leeward of the island of Roatan, in the Bay of Honduras, where 
the bottom of the schooner was cleaned. There were now twenty-two 
persons on board, and eight of us engaged in a plot to overpower our 
masters, and make our escape. Spriggs proposed sailing for New 
England, in quest of provisions, and to increase his company; and we 
intended on approaching the coast, when the rest had indulged freely 
in liquor, and fallen sound asleep, to secure them under the hatches, and 
then deliver ourselves up to government. 

Although our plot was carried on with all possible privacy, Spriggs 
had, somehow or other, got intelligence of it; and having fallen in with 
Low on the voyage, went on board his ship to make a furious declaration 
against us. But Low made little account of his information, otherwise 
it might have been fatal to most of our number. Spriggs, however, 
returned raging to the schooner, exclaiming, that four of us should go 
forward to be shot, and to me in particular he said, “You dog, Ashton, 
you deserve to be hanged up at the yard-arm, for designing to cut us off.” 
I replied, “that I had no intention of injuring any man on board; but I 
should be glad if they would allow me to go away quietly.” At length 
this flame was quenched, and, through the goodness of God, I escaped 
destruction. Roatan harbor, as all about the Bay of Honduras, is full 
of small islands, which pass under the general name of Keys; and having 
got in here, Low, with some of his chief men, landed on a small island, 
which they called Port Royal Key. There they erected huts, and con- 
tined carousing, drinking and firing, while the different vessels, of which 
they now had possession, were repairing. 

On Saturday, the ninth of March, 1723, the cooper, with six hands, 
in the long-boat, was going ashore for water; and coming along side of 
the schooner, I requested to be of the party. Seeing him hesitate, I 
urged that I had never hitherto been ashore, and thought it hard to be 
so closely confined, when every one beside had the liberty of landing as 
there was occasion. Low had before told me, on requesting to be sent 
away in some of the captured vessels which he dismissed, that I should 
go home when he did, and swore that I should never previously set my 
foot on land. But now I considered, if I could possibly once get on terra- 
firma, though in ever such bad circumstances, I should account it a happy 
deliverance, and resolved never to embark again. 

The cooper at length took me into the long-boat, while Low, and his 
chief people, were on a different island from Roatan, where the watering- 
place lay; my only clothing was an Osnaburgh frock and trowsers, a 
milled cap, but neither shirt, shoes, stockings, nor anything else. When 
we first landed, I was very active in assisting to get the casks out of the 
boat, and in rolling them to the watering-place. Then taking a hearty 
draught of water, I strolled along the beach, picking up stones and shells : 


ADVENTURES OF PHILIP ASHTON. 


423 

but on reaching the distance of a musket-shot from the party, I began to 
withdraw toward the skirts of the woods. In answer to a question by the 
cooper of whither I was going? I replied, u for cocoanuts, as some cocoa- 
trees were just before me;” and as soon as I was out of sight of my 
companions, I took to my heels, running as fast as the thickness of 
the bushes and my naked feet would admit. Notwithstanding I had got 
a considerable way into the woods, I was still so near as to hear the voices 
of the party if they spoke loud, and I lay close in a thicket where I knew 
they could not find me. 

After my comrades had filled their casks, and were about to depart, 
the cooper called on me to accompany them; however, I lay snug in the 
thicket, and gave him no answer, though his words were plain enough 
At length, after hallooing loudly, I could hear them say to one another, 
“The dog is lost in the woods, and cannot find the way out again;” then 
they hallooed once more, and cried “ he has run away and wont come to 
us;” and the cooper observed, that, had he known my intention, he would 
not have brought me ashore. Satisfied of their inability to find me among 
the trees and bushes, the cooper at last, to show his kindness, exclaimed, 
“ If you do not come away presently, I shall go off’ and leave you alone.” 
Nothing, however, could induce me to discover myself; and my comrades 
seeing it vain to wait any longer, put off without me. 

Thus I was left on a desolate island, destitute of all help, and remote 
from the track of navigators ; but, compared with the state and society I 
had quitted, I considered the wilderness hospitable, and the solitude 
interesting. When I thought the whole were gone, I emerged from my 
thicket, and came down to a small run of water, about a mile from the 
place where our casks were filled, and there sat down to observe the 
proceedings of the pirates. To my great joy, in five days their vessels 
sailed, and I saw the schooner part from them to shape a different 
course. 

I then began to reflect on myself and my present condition: I was on 
an island which I had no means of leaving; I knew of no human being 
within many miles ; my clothing was scanty, and it was impossible to 
procure a supply. I was altogether destitute of provision, nor could tell 
how my life was to be supported. This melancholy prospect drew a 
copious flood of tears from my eyes; but as it had pleased God to grant 
my wishes in being liberated from those whose occupation was devising 
mischief against their neighbors, I resolved to account every hardship 
light. Yet Low would never suffer his men to work on the Sabbath, 
which was more devoted to play; and I have even seen some of them sit 
down to read in a good book. 

In order to ascertain how I was to live in time to come, I began to 
range over the island, which proved ten or eleven leagues long, and lay 
in about sixteen degrees north latitude. But I soon found that my only 
companions would be the beasts of the earth, and fowls of the air; for 
there were no indications of any habitations on the island, though every 
now and then I found some shreds of earthenware scattered in a lime 
walk, said by some to be remains of Indians formerly dwelling here. 
The island was well watered, full of high hills and deep vallies. 
Numerous fruit trees, such as figs, vines, and cocoanuts are found in the 
latter; and I found a kind larger than an orange, oval-shaped, of a 
brownish color without, and red within. Though many of these had 
fallen under the trees, I could not venture to take them, until I saw the 
wild hogs feeding with safety, and then I found them very delicious fruit. 


ADVENTURES OF PHILIP ASHTON. 


424 

Stores of provisions abounded here, though I could avail myself of nothing 
but the fruit; for I had no knife or iron implement, either to cut up a 
tortoise on turning it, or weapons wherewith to kill animals; nor had I 
any means of making a fire to cook my capture, even if I were successful. 
Sometimes I entertained thoughts of digging pits, and covering them 
over with small branches of trees, for the purpose of taking hogs or deer; 
but I wanted a shovel and every substitute for the purpose, and I was 
soon convinced that my hands were insufficient to make a cavity deep 
enough to retain what should fall into it. Thus I was forced to rest 
satisfied with fruit, which was to be esteemed very good provision for 
any one in my condition. 

In process of time, while poking among the sand with a stick, in quest 
of tortoise eggs, which I had heard were laid in the sand, part of one 
came up adhering to it; and, on removing the sand, I found nearly a 
hundred and fifty, which had not lain long enough to spoil. Therefore, 
taking some, I ate them, and strung others on a strip of palmetto, which, 
being hung up in the sun, became thick and somewhat hard; so that 
they were more palatable. After all, they were not very savory food, 
though one, who had nothing but what fell from the trees, behoved to be 
content. Tortoise lay their eggs in the sand, in holes about a foot or 
a foot and a half deep, and smooth the surface over them, so that there 
is no discovering where they lie. According to the best of my observation, 
the young are hatched in eighteen or twenty days, and then immediately 
take to the water. 

Many serpents are on this and the adjacent islands; one, about twelve 
or fourteen feet long, is as large as a man’s waist, but not poisonous. 
When lying at length, they look like old trunks of trees, covered with 
short moss, though they usually assume a circular position. The first time I 
saw one of these serpents, I had approached very near before discovering it 
to be a living creature ; it opened its mouth wide enough to have received 
a hat, and breathed on me. A small black fly creates such annoyance, 
that even if a person possessed ever so many comforts, his life would be 
oppressive to him, unless for the possibility of retiring to some small quay, 
destitute of wood and bushes, where multitudes are dispersed by the 
wind. To this place, then, was I confined during nine months, without 
seeing a human being. One day after another was lingered out, I know 
not how, void of occupation or amusement, except collecting food, rambling 
from hill to hill, and from island to island, and gazing on sky and water. 
Although my mind was occupied by many regrets, I had the reflection 
that I was lawfully employed when taken, so that I had no hand in bringing 
misery on myself: I was also comforted to think that I had the approbation 
and consent of my parents in going to sea, and trusted that it would 
please God, in his own time and manner, to provide for my return to my 
lather’s house. Therefore, I resolved to submit patiently to my misfortune. 

It was my daily practice to ramble from one part of the island to another, 
though l had a more special home near the water-side. Here I built a 
hut to defend me against the heat of the sun by day, and the heavy dews 
by night. Taking some of the best branches which I could find fallen 
from the trees, I contrived to fix them against a low hanging bough, by 
fastening them together with split palmetto leaves; next I covered the 
z whole with some of the largest and most suitable leaves that I could get. 
Many of these huts were constructed by me, generally near the beach, 
with the open part, fronting the sea, to have the better look-out, and the 
advantage of the sea-breeze, which both the heat and the vermin 


ADVENTURES OF PHILIP ASHTON. 


425 


required. But the insects were so troublesome, that I thought of en¬ 
deavoring to get over to some of the adjacent keys, in hopes of enjoying 
rest. However, I was, as already said, a very indifferent swimmer; I had 
no canoe, nor any means of making one. At length, having got a piece 
of bamboo, which is hollow like a reed, and light as cork, I ventured, 
after frequent trials with it under my breast and arms, to put off for a 
small key about a gun-shot distant, wfflich I reached in safety. My new 
place of refuge was only about three or four hundred feet in circuit, lying 
very low, and clear of woods and brush; from exposure to the wind, it 
was quite free of vermin, and I seemed to have got into a new world, 
where I lived infinitely more at ease. Hither I retired, therefore, when 
the heat of the day rendered the insect tribe most obnoxious; yeti was 
obliged to be much on Roatan, to procure food and water, and at night 
on account of my hut. 

When swimming back and forward between the two islands, I used to 
bind my frock and trowsers about my head, and if I could have carried 
over wood and leaves, whereof to make a hut, with equal facility, I should 
have passed more of my time on the smaller one. Yet these excursions 
were not unattended with danger. Once, I remember, when passing 
from the larger island, the bamboo, before I was aware, slipped from 
under me; and the tide, or current, set down so strong, that it was with 
great difficulty I could reach the shore. At another time, when swimming 
over to the small island, a shovel-nosed shark, which, as well as alligators, 
abound in those seas, struck me in the thigh, just as my foot could reach 
the bottom, and grounded itself, from the shallowness of the water, as I 
suppose, so that its mouth could not get round toward me. The blow I 
felt some hours after making the shore. By repeated practice, I at length 
became a pretty dextrous swimmer, and amused myself by passing from 
one island to another, among the keys. 

I suffered very much from being barefoot; so many deep wounds were 
made in my feet from traversing the woods, where the ground was 
covered with sticks and stones, and on the hot beach, over sharp broken 
shells, that I was scarce able to walk at all. Often, when treading with 
all possible caution, a stone or shell on the beach, or a pointed stick in the 
woods, would penetrate the old wound, and the extreme anguish would 
strike me down as suddenly as if I had been shot. Then I would remain, 
for hours together, with tears gushing from my eyes, from the acuteness 
of the pain. I could travel no more than absolute necessity compelled me, 
in quest of subsistence; and I have sat, my back leaning against a tree, 
looking out for a vessel during a complete day. Once, while faint from 
siich injuries, as well as smarting under the pain of them, a wild boar 
rushed toward me. I knew not what to do, for I had not strength to resist 
his attack; therefore, as he drew nearer, I caught the bough of a tree, 
and suspended myself by means of it. The boar tore away part of my 
ragged trowsers with his tusks, and then left me. This, I think, was the 
only time that I was attacked by any wild beast, and I considered myself 
to have had a very great deliverance. 

As my weakness continued to increase, I often fell to the ground in¬ 
sensible, and then, as also when I laid myself to sleep, I thought I should 
never awake again, or rise in life. Under this affliction I first lost count 
of the days of the week; I could not distinguish Sunday, and, as my 
illness became more aggravated, I became ignorant of the month also. 
All this time I had no healing balsam for my feet, nor any cordial to re¬ 
vive my drooping spirits. My utmost efforts could only now and then 


426 ADVENTURES OF PHILIP ASHTON. * 

procure some figs and grapes. Neither had I fire; for, though I had 
heard of a way to procure it by rubbing two sticks together, my attempts 
in this respect, continued until I was tired, proved abortive. The rains 
having come on, attended with chill winds, I suffered exceedingly. 
While passing nine months in this lonely, melancholy, and irksome con¬ 
dition, my thoughts would sometimes wander to my parents; and I reflected, 
that, notwithstanding it would be consolatory to myself if they knew where 
I was, it might be distressing to them. The nearer my prospect of death, 
which I often expected, the greater my penitence became. 

Some time in November, 1723, I descried a small canoe approaching, 
with a single man; but the sight excited little emotion. I kept my seat 
on the beach, thinking I could not expect a friend, and knowing that I 
had no enemy to fear, nor was I capable of resisting one. As the man 
approached, he betrayed many signs of surprise; he called me to him, 
and I told him he might safely venture ashore, for I was alone, and almost 
expiring. Coming close up, he knew not what to make of me ; my garb 
and countenance seemed so singular, that he looked wild with astonish¬ 
ment. He started back a little, and surveyed me more thoroughly; but, 
recovering himself again, came forward, and, taking me by the hand, 
expressed his satisfaction at seeing me. This stranger proved to be a 
native of North Britain; he was well advanced in years, of a grave and 
venerable aspect, and of a reserved temper. His name I never knew, 
he did not disclose it, and I had not inquired during the period of our 
acquaintance. But he informed me he had lived twenty-two years with 
the Spaniards who now threatened to burn him, though I know not for 
what crime ; therefore he had fled hither as a sanctuary, bringing his dog, 
gun, and ammunition, as also a small quantity of pork, along with him. 
He designed spending the remainder of his days on the island, where he 
could support himself by hunting. 

I experienced much kindness from the stranger; he was always ready 
to perform any civil offices, and assist me in whatever hd could, though he 
spoke little: and he gave me a share of his pork. On the third day after 
his arrival, he said he would make an excursion in his canoe among the 
neighboring islands, for the purpose of killing wild hogs and deer, and 
wished me to accompany him. Though my spirits were somewhat re¬ 
cruited by his society, the benefit of the fire, which I now enjoyed, and 
dressed provisions, my weakness and the soreness of my feet, precluded 
me; therefore he set out alone, saying he would return in a few hours. 
The sky was serene, and there was no prospect of any danger during a 
short excursion, seeing he had come nearly twelve leagues in safety in 
his canoe. But, when he had been absent about an hour, a violent gust 
of wind and rain arose, in which he probably perished, as I never heard 
of him more. 

Thus, after having the pleasure of a companion almost three days, 1 
was as unexpectedly reduced to my former lonely state, as I had been re¬ 
lieved from it. Yet, through the goodness of God, I was myself preserved 
from having been unable to accompany him; and I was left in better 
circumstances than those in which he had found me, for now I had about 
five pounds of pork, a knife, a bottle of gunpowder, tobacco, tongs and 
flint, by which means my life could be rendered more comfortable. I 
was enabled to have fire, extremely requisite at this time, being the 
rainy months of winter. I could cut up a tortoise, and have a delicate 
broiled meal — Thus, by the help of the fire, and dressed provisions, 
through the blessing of God, I began to recover strength, though the 


ADVENTURES OF PHILIP ASHTON. 


427 

soreness of my feet remained. But I had, beside, the advantage of being 
able now and then to catch a dish of crayfish, which, when roasted, 
proved good eating. To accomplish this I made up a small bundle of 
old broken sticks, nearly resembling pitch-pine, or candle-wood, and 
having lighted one end, waded with it in my hand, up to the waist in 
water. The cray-fish, attracted by the light, would crawl to my feet, 
and lie directly under it, when, by means of a forked stick, I could toss 
them ashore. 

Between two and three months after the time of losing my companion, 
I found a small canoe, while ranging along the shore. The sight of it 
revived my regret for his loss, for I judged that it had been his canoe ; 
and, from being washed up here, a certain proof of his having been lost 
in the tempest. But, on examining it more closely, I satisfied myself that 
it was one which I had never seen before. Master of this little vessel, 
I began to think myself admiral of the neighboring seas, as well as sole 
possessor and chief commander of the islands. Profiting by its use, I 
could transport myself to the places of retreat more conveniently than by 
my former expedient of swimming. 

In process of time, I projected an excursion to some of the larger and 
more distant islands, partly to learn how they were stored or inhabited, 
and partly for the sake of amusement.—Laying in a small stock of figs 
and grapes, therefore, as also some tortoise to eat, and carrying my im¬ 
plements for fire, I put off to steer for the island of Bornacco, which is 
about four or five leagues long, and situated five or six from Roatan. In 
the course of the voyage, observing a sloop at the east end of the island, 
I made the best of my way to the west, designing to travel down by land, 
both because a point of rocks ran far into the sea, beyond which I did 
not care to venture in the canoe, as was necessary to come ahead of the 
sloop, and because I wished to ascertain something concerning her people 
before I was discovered. Even in my worst circumstances, I never could 
brook the thoughts of returning on board of any piratical vessel, and resolved 
rather to live and die in my present situation. Hauling up the canoe, and 
making it fast as well as I was able, I set out on the journey. My feet 
were yet in such a state, that two clays, and the best part of two nights 
were occupied in it. Sometimes the woods and bushes were so thick 
that it was necessary to crawl half a mile together on my hands and 
knees, which rendered my progress very slow. When within a mile or 
two of the place where I supposed the sloop might be, I made for the 
water side, and approached the sea gradually, that I might not too soon 
disclose myself to view; however, on reaching the beach, there was no 
appearance of the sloop, whence I judged that she had sailed during the 
time spent by me in traveling. Being much fatigued with the journey, 
I rested myself against the stump of a tree, with my face toward the sea, 
where sleep overpowered me. But I had not slumbered long before I 
was suddenly awakened by the noise of firing.—Starting up in affright, I 
saw nine pirogues, or large canoes, full of men, firing upon me from the 
sea; whence I soon turned about and ran among the bushes as fast as 
my sore feet would allow, while the men, who were Spaniards, cried after 
me, “O Englishman! we will give you good quarter.” However, my 
astonishment was so great, and I was so suddenly roused from my sleep, 
that I had no self-command to listen to their offers of quarter, which, it 
may be, at another time, in my cooler moments, I might have done. 
'Thus I made into the woods, and the strangers continued firing after me, 
to the number of one hundred and fifty bullets at least, many of which 


ADVENTURES OF PHILIP ASHTON. 


428 

cut small twigs off the bushes close by my side. Having gained an ex¬ 
tensive thicket beyond reach of the shot, I lay close several hours, until 
observing, by the sound of their oars, that the Spaniards were departing, 
I crept out. I saw the sloop under English colors sailing away with the 
canoes in tow, which induced me to suppose she was an English vessel 
which had been at the Bay of Honduras, and taken there by the Spaniards. 
Next day I returned to the tree, where I had been so nearly surprised, 
and was astonished to find six or seven shot in the trunk, within a foot 
or less of my head. Yet through the wonderful goodness of God, though 
having been as a mark to shoot at, I was preserved. 

After this I traveled to recover my canoe at the western end of the 
island, which I reached in three days, but suffering severely from the 
soreness of my feet, and the scantiness of provisions. This island is not 
so plentifully stored as Roatan, so that during the five or six days of my 
residence,I had difficulty in procuring subsistence; and the insects were, 
beside, infinitely more numerous and harassing than at my old habitation. 
These circumstances deterred me from further exploring the island; and 
having reached the canoe very tired and exhausted, I put off for Roatan, 
which was a royal palace to me, compared with Bonacco, and arrived at 
night in safety. Here I lived, if it may be called living, alone, for about 
seven months, after losing my North British companion.—My time was 
spent in the usual manner, hunting for food, and ranging among the 
islands. 

Some time in June, 1724, while on the small quay, whither I often 
retreated to be free from the annoyance of insects, I saw two canoes 
making for the harbor. Appoaching nearer, they observed the smoke of 
a fire which I had kindled, and at. a loss to know what it meant, they 
hesitated on advancing.—What I had experienced at Bonacco, was still 
fresh in my own memory, and loth to run the risk of such another firing, 
I withdrew to my canoe, lying behind the quay, not above a hundred 
yards distant, and immediately rowed over to Roatan. There I had 
places of safety against an enemy, and sufficient, accommodation for any 
ordinary number of friends. 

The people in the canoes observed me cross the sea to Roatan, the 
passage not exceeding a gun-shot over; and being as much afraid of 
pirates as I was of Spaniards, approached very cautiously toward the 
shore. I then came down to the beach, showing myself openly; for their 
conduct led me to think that they could not be pirates, and I resolved 
before being exposed to the danger of their shot, to inquire who they 
were. If they proved such as I did not like, I could easily retire. 
But before I spoke, they, as full of apprehension as I could be, lay on 
their oars, and demanded who I was, and from whence I came? to which 
I replied, that u I was an Englishman, and had run away from pirates.” 
On this they drew somewhat nearer, inquiring who was there beside my¬ 
self? when I assured them, in return, that I was alone. Next, according 
to my original purpose, having put similar questions to them, they said 
they had come from the Bay of Honduras; their words encouraged me 
to bid them row ashore, which they accordingly did, though at some 
distance, and one man landed, whom I advanced to meet. But he started 
back at the sight of a poor ragged, wild, forlorn, miserable object so near 
him. Collecting himself, however, he took me by the hand, and we 
began embracing each other, he from surprise and wofider, and I from a 
sort of ecstacy of joy. When this was over, he took me in his arms, and 
carried me down to the canoes, when all his comrades were struck with 


ADVENTURES OF PHILIP ASHTON. 


429 

astonishment at my appearance; but they gladly received me, and I 
experienced great tenderness from them. 

I gave the strangers a brief account of my escape from Low, and my 
lonely residence for sixteen months, all excepting three days, the hard¬ 
ships I had suffered, and the dangers to which I had been exposed. 
They stood amazed at the recital; they wondered I was alive, and ex¬ 
pressed much satisfaction at being able to relieve me. Observing me very 
weak and depressed, they gave me about a spoonful of rum to recruit 
my fainting spirits; but even this small quantity, from my long disuse of 
strong liquors, threw me into violent agitation, and produced a kind of 
stupor, which at last ended in privation of sense. Some of the party 
perceiving a state of insensibility come on, would have administered more 
rum, which those better skilled among them prevented; and after lying a 
short time in a fit, I revived. Then I ascertained, that the strangers were 
eighteen in number, the chief of them named John Hope, an old man, 
called Father Hope, by his companions, and John Ford, and all belonging 
to the Bay of Honduras. The cause of their coming hither, was an alarm 
for an attack from the sea, by the Spaniards, while the Indians should 
make a descent by land, and cut off the Bay; thus they had fled for safety. 
On a former occasion, the two persons above named, had for the like 
reason, taken shelter among these islands, and lived four years at a time on 
a small one, named Barbarat, about two leagues from Roatan. There 
they had two plantations, as they called them; and now they brought 
two barrels of flour, with other provisions, fire-arms, dogs for hunting, 
and nets for tortoise; and also an Indian woman to dress their provisions. 
Their principal residence was a small key, about a quarter of a mile round, 
lying near to Barbarat, and named by them the Castle of Comfort, chiefly 
because it was low and clear of woods and bushes, so that the free cir¬ 
culation of wind could drive away the pestiferous musquitoes and other 
insects. From hence they sent to the surrounding islands for wood, 
water and materials to build two houses, such as they were, for shelter. 

I now had the prospect of a much more agreeable life than what I had 
spent during the sixteen months past; for, beside having company, the 
strangers treated me with a great deal of civility in their way; they 
clothed me, and gave me a large wrapping gown as a defense against 
the nightly dews, until their houses were erected; and there was plenty 
of provisions. Yet after all, they were bad society; and as to their com¬ 
mon conversation, there was but little difference between them and 
pirates. However, it did not appear that they were now engaged in any 
such evil design as rendered it unlawful to join them, or be found in their 
company. In process of time, and with the assistance afforded by niy 
companions, I gathered so much strength as sometimes to be able to hunt 
along with them. The islands abounded with wild hogs, deer and tortoise ; 
and different ones were visited in quest of game. This was brought 
home, where, instead of being immediately consumed, it was hung up to 
dry, in smoke, so as to be a ready supply at all times. I now considered 
myself beyond the reach of danger from an enemy, for, independent of 
supposing that nothing could bring any one here, I was surrounded by a 
number of men with arms constantly in their hands. Yet, at the very 
time that I thought myself most secure, I was very near again falling 
into the hands of pirates. 

Six or seven months after the strangers joined me, three of them, along 
with myself, took a four-oared canoe, for the purpose of hunting and killing 
tortoise on Bonacco. During our absence the rest repaired their canoes, 


ADVENTURES OF PHILIP ASHTON. 


430 

and prepared to go over to the Bay of Honduras, to examine how matters 
stood there, and bring off their remaining effects, in case it were dangerous 
to return. But before they had departed, we were on our voyage home¬ 
ward, having a full load of pork and tortoise, as our object was successfully 
accomplished. While entering the mouth of the harbor, in a moonlight 
evening, we saw a great flash, and heard a report much louder than that 
of a musket, proceeding from a large pirogue, which we observed near 
the Castle of Comfort. This put us in extreme consternation, and we 
knew not what to consider; but in a minute we heard a volley of eighteen 
or twenty small arms, discharged toward the shore, and also some re¬ 
turned from it. Satisfied that the enemy, either Spaniards or pirates, 
was attacking our people, and being intercepted from them by pirogues 
lying between us and the shore, we thought the safest plan was trying to 
escape. Therefore, taking down our little mast and sail, that they might 
not betray us, we rowed out of the harbor as fast as possible, toward an 
island about a mile and a half distant, to retreat undiscovered. But the 
enemy either having seen us before lowering our sail, or heard the noise 
of the oars, followed with all speed, in an eight or ten oared pirogue. 
Observing her approach, and fast gaining on us, we rowed with all our 
might to make the nearest shore. However, she was at length enabled 
to discharge a swivel, the shot from which passed over our canoe. 
Nevertheless, we contrived to reach the shore before being completely 
within the range of small arms, which our pursuers discharged on us 
while landing. 

They were now near enough to cry aloud that they were pirates, and 
not Spaniards, and that we need not dread them, as we should get good 
quarter; thence supposing, that we should be the easier induced to sur¬ 
render. Yet nothing could have been said to discourage me more from 
putting myself in their power; I had the utmost dread of a pirate, and 
my original aversion was now enhanced, by the apprehension of being 
sacrificed for my former desertion. Thus, concluding to keep as clear of 
them as I could, and the Honduras Bay men having no great inclination to 
do otherwise, we made the best of our way to the woods. Our pursuers 
carried off the canoe, with all its contents, resolving, if we would not go 
to them, to deprive us, as far as possible, of all means of subsistence 
where we were. But it gave me, who had known both want and solitude, 
little concern, now that I had company, and there were arms among us to 
procure provision, and also fire wherewith to dress it. Our assailants 
were some men belonging to Spriggs, my former commander, who had 
thrown off his allegiance to Low, and set up for himself at the head of a 
gang of pirates, with a good ship of twenty-four guns, and a sloop of 
twelve, both presently lying in Roatan harbor. He had put in for fresh 
water, and to refit, at the place where I first escaped; and, having dis¬ 
covered my companions at the small island of their retreat, sent a pirogue 
full of men to take them. Accordingly they carried all ashore, as also 
a child and an Indian woman; the last of whom they shamefully abused. 
They killed a man after landing, and throwing him into one of the canoes 
containing tar, set it on fire, and burnt his body in it. Then they carried 
the people on board of their vessels, where they were barbarously treated. 
One of them turned pirate, however, and told the others that John Hope 
had hid many things in the woods; therefore, they beat him unmercifully 
io make him disclose his treasure, which they carried off with them. 

After the pirates had kept these people five days on board of their 
vessels, they gave them a flat of five or six tons, to carry them to the Bay 


t 


ADVENTURES OF PHILIP ASHTON. 


431 

of Honduras, but no kind of provision for the voyage; and further, before 
dismissal, compelled them to swear that they would not come near me 
and my party, who had escaped to another island. While the vessels 
rode in the harbor, we kept a good look-out, but were exposed to some 
difficulties, from not daring to kindle a fire to dress our victuals, lest our 
residence should be betrayed. Thus we lived for five days, on raw 
provisions.—As soon as they sailed, however, Hope, little regarding the 
oath extorted from him, came and informed us of what had passed; and 
I could not, for my own part, be sufficiently grateful to Providence for 
escaping the hands of the pirates, who would have put me to a cruel 
death. 

Hope and all his people, except John Symonds, now resolved to make 
their way to the Bay. Symonds, who had a negro, wished to remain 
some time for the purpose of trading with the Jamaica men on the main. 
But thinking my best chance of getting to New England was from the 
Bay of Honduras, I requested Hope to take me with him. The old man, 
though he would gladly have done so, advanced many objections, such 
as the insufficiency of the flat to carry so many men seventy leagues; 
that they had no provisions for the passage, which might be tedious; and 
the flat was, beside, ill calculated to stand the sea; as also, that it was 
uncertain how matters might turn out at the Bay: thus he thought it better 
for me to remain; yet rather than I should be in solitude, he would take me 
in. Symonds, on the other hand, urged me to stay and bear him company, 
and gave several reasons why I should more likely obtain a passage from 
the Jamaica men to New England, than by the Bay of Honduras. As 
this seemed a fairer prospect of reaching my home, which I was ex¬ 
tremely anxious to do, I assented; and, having thanked Hope and his 
companions for their civilities, I took leave of them, and they departed. 
Symonds was provided with a canoe, fire-arms, and two dogs, in addition 
to his negro, by which means he felt confident of being able to provide 
all that was necessary for our subsistence. We spent two or three months 
after the usual manner, ranging from island to island, but the prevalence 
of the winter rains precluded us from obtaining more game than we 
required. 

When the season for the Jamaica traders approached, Symonds pro¬ 
posed repairing to some other island to obtain a quantity of tortoise shell 
which he could exchange for clothes and shoes; and, being successful 
in this respect, we next proceeded to Bonacco, which lies near the main, 
that we might thence take a favorable opportunity to run over. Having 
been a short time at Bonacco, a furious tempest arose, and continued for 
three days, when we saw several vessels standing in for the harbor. 
The largest of them anchored at a great distance, but a brigantine came 
over the shoals opposite to the watering-place, and sent her boat ashore 
with casks. Recognizing three people who were in the boat, by their 
dress and appearance, for Englishmen, I concluded they were friends, 
and showed myself openly on the beach before them. They ceased 
rowing immediately on observing me, and, after answering their inquiries 
of who I was, I put the same questions, saying they might come ashore 
with safety. They did so, and a happy meeting it was for me. I now 
found that the vessels were a fleet, under convoy of the Diamond man-of- 
war, bound for Jamaica; but many ships had parted company in the storm. 
Tne Diamond had sent in the brigantine to get water here, as the sickness 
of her crew had occasioned a great consumption of that necessary 
article. 


ADVENTURES OF PHILIP ASHTON. 


m 

Symonds, who had kept at a distance, lest the three men might hesitate 
to come ashore, at length approached to participate in my joy, though, at 
the same time, testifying considerable reluctance at the prospect of my 
leaving him. The brigantine was commanded by Captain Dove, with 
whom I was acquainted, and she belonged to Salem, within three miles 
of my father’s house. Captain Dove not only treated me with great 
civility, and engaged to give me a passage home, but took me into pay, 
having lost a seaman, whose place he wanted me to supply. Next day, 
the Diamond having sent her long-boat with casks for water, they were 
filled; and after taking leave of Symonds, who shed tears at parting, I was 
carried on board of the brigantine. 

We sailed along with the Diamond, which was bound for Jamaica, on 
the latter end of March, 1725, and kept company until the first of April. 
By the providence of Heaven we passed safely through the Gulf of Florida, 
and reached Salem Harbor on the first of May, two years, ten months and 
fifteen days after I was first taken by pirates; and two years and two 
months, after making my escape from them on Roatan Island. That 
same evening I went to my father’s house, where I was received as one 
risen from the dead. 






SHIPWRECK 


OF THE 


FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA: 


AS RELATED BY MADEMOISELLE PICARD J ADDED TO WHICH 18 THE NARRATIVE OF TWO OF 
THE OFFICERS, WHO SHARED THE UNSPEAKABLE MISERIES OF A RAFT FULL OF HER SAILORS 
AND PASSENGERS WHO WERE REDUCED TO THE NECESSITY OF 


FEEDING UPON THE CORPSES OF THEIR COMPANIONS. 


Early on the morning of the 22d of June, 1816 , we were on our way 
to the boats that were to convey us on board the Medusa, which was riding 
at anchor off the island of Aix, on the western coast of France. We soon 
arrived at the place of embarkation, where we found some of our fellow 
passengers, who, like myself, seemed casting a last look to heaven while 
we were yet on the French soil. When we got on board we found our 
berths not provided for us, consequently were obliged to remain indis¬ 
criminately together till next day. Our family, which consisted of nine 
persons, was placed in a berth near the main-deck. As the wind was 
still contrary, we lay at anchor for several days. 

On the 17th of June, at four in the morning, we set sail, as did the 
whole expedition, which consisted of the Medusa frigate, the Loire store- 
ship, the Argus brig, and the Echo corvette. The wind being very 
favorable, we soon lost sight of the green fields of l’Aunis. At six in 
the morning, however, the island of Rhe still appeared above the horizon. 
We fixed our eyes upon it with regret, to salute for the last time our 
dear country. Now, imagine the ship borne aloft, and surrounded by 
huge mountains of water, which at one moment tossed it in the air, and 
at another plunged it into the profound abyss. The waves, raised by a 
stormy northwest breeze, came dashing in a horrible manner against the 
sides of our ship. I know not whether it was a presentiment of the 
misfortune which menaced us that had made me pass the preceding night 
in the most cruel inquietude. In my agitation I sprung upon deck and 
contemplated with horror the frigate winging its way upon the waters. 
The winds pressed against the sails with great violence, strained and 
whistled among the cordage, and the great hulk of wood seemed to split 
every time the surge broke upon its sides. On looking a little out to sea 
I perceived, at no great distance on our right, all the other ships of the 
expedition, which quieted me much. Toward ten in the morning the 
wind changed; immediately an appalling cry was heard, concerning which 
the passengers, as well as myself, were equally ignorant. The whole 
crew were in motion. Some climbed the rope ladders, and seemed to 
perch on the extremities of the yards; others mounted to the highest parts 
of the masts; these bellowing and pulling certain cordages in cadence; 
those crying, swearing, whistling, and filling the air with barbarous and 
unknown sounds. The officer on duty, in his turn, roared out these words, 
starboard! larboard! hoist! luff! tack! which the helmsman repeated 
28 (433) 



SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


434 

in the same tone. All this hubbub, however, produced its effect: the 
yards were turned on their pivots, the sails set, the cordage tightened, 
and the unfortunate sea-boys having received their lesson, descended to 
the deck. Everything remained tranquil, except that the waves still 
roared, and the masts continued their creaking. However, the sails were 
swelled, the winds less violent, though favorable, and the mariner, while 
he carolled his song, said he had a noble voyage. 

On the 28th of June, at six in the morning, we discovered the Peak of 
Teneriffe toward the south, the summit of whose cone seemed lost among 
the clouds. We were then distant about two leagues, which we made in 
less than a quarter of an hour. At ten o’clock we brought to before the 
town of St. Croix. Several officers got leave to go on shore to procure 
refreshments. While these gentlemen were away, a certain passenger, 
member of the self-instituted Philanthropic Society of Cape Verd, sug¬ 
gested that it was very dangerous to remain where we were, adding that 
he was well acquainted with the country, and had navigated in all these 
latitudes. M. Le Roy Lachaumareys, captain of the Medusa, believing 
the pretended knowledge of the intriguing Richefort, gave him the com¬ 
mand of the frigate. Various officers of the navy represented to the 
captain how shameful it was to put such confidence in a stranger, and 
that they would never obey a man who had no character as a commander. 
The captain despised these wise remonstrances; and, using his authority, 
commanded the pilots and the crew to obey Richefort; saying he was king, 
since the orders of the king were that they should obey him. Immedi¬ 
ately the impostor, desirous of displaying his great skill in navigation, 
made them change the route for no purpose but that of showing his skill 
in maneuvering a ship. Every instant he changed the tack, went, came, 
and returned, and approached the very reefs, as if to brave them. In 
short, he beat about so much that the sailors at length refused to obey 
him, saying boldly that he was a vile impostor. But it was done. The 
man had gained the confidence of Captain Lachaumareys, who, ignorant 
of navigation himself, was doubtless glad to get some one to undertake 
his duty. But it must be told, that this blind and inept confidence was 
the sole cause of the loss of the Medusa frigate, as well as of all the 
crimes consequent upon it. 

Toward three in the afternoon, those officers who had gone on shore 
in the morning, returned on board loaded with vegetables, fruits and 
flowers. They laughed heartily at the maneuvers that had been going 
on during their absence, which doubtless did not please the captain, who 
flattered himself he had already found in this pilot Richefort a good and 
able seaman; such were his words. At four in the afternoon he took a 
southerly direction. M. Richefort then beaming with exultation for having, 
as he said, saved the Medusa from certain shipwreck, continued to 
give his pernicious counsels to Captain Lachaumareys, persuaded him 
he had been often employed to explore the^hores of Africa, and that he 
was perfectly well acquainted with the Afguine Bank. On the 1st of 
July we recognized Cape Bojador, and then saw the shores of Sahara. 
Toward ten in the morning they set about the frivolous ceremony which 
the sailors have invented for the purpose of exacting something from those 
passengers who have never crossed the line. During the ceremony the 
frigate doubled Cape Barbas, hastening to its - destruction. Captain 
Lachaumareys very good humoredly presided at this species of baptism, 
while his dear Richefort promenaded the forecastle, and looked with 
indifference upon a shore bristling with danger. However that may be, 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 435 

all passed on well; nay, it may be even said that the farce was well played 
off- But the route which we pursued soon made us forget the short¬ 
lived happiness we had experienced. Every one began to observe the 
sudden change which had taken place in the color of the sea, as we ran 
upon a bank in shallow water. A general murmur rose among the pas¬ 
sengers and officers of the navy—they were far from partaking in the 
blind confidence of the captain. 

On the 2d of July, at five in the morning, the captain was persuaded 
that a large cloud, which was discovered in the direction of Cape Blanco, 
was that cape itself. After this pretended discovery, they ought to have 
steered to the west, for about fifty leagues, to have gained sea-room to 
double with certainty the Arguin bank; moreover, they ought to have 
conformed to the instructions which the Minister of Marine had given to 
the ships which set out for Senegal. The other part of the expedition, 
from having followed these instructions, arrived in safety at their desti¬ 
nation. During the preceding night the Echo, which had hitherto accom¬ 
panied the Medusa, made several signals, but being replied to with con¬ 
tempt abandoned us. Toward ten in the morning, the danger which 
threatened us was again represented to the captain, and he was strongly 
urged, if he wished to avoid the Arguin bank, to take a westerly course ; 
but the advice was again neglected, and he despised the predictions. 
One of the officers of the frigate, from having wished to expose the 
intriguing Richefort, was put under arrest. My father, who had already 
twice made the voyage to Senegal, and who, with various persons, was 
persuaded they were going right upon the bank, also made his observa¬ 
tions to the unfortunate pilot. His advice was no better received than 
that of others. Richefort, in the sweetest tone, replied. “ My dear, we 
know our business; attend to yours, and be quiet. I have already twice 
passed the Arguin bank: I have sailed upon the Red Sea, and you see I 
am not drowned.” What reply could be made to such a preposterous 
speech? My father, seeing it was impossible to get our route changed, 
resolved to trust to providence to free us from our danger, and descended 
to our cabin, where he sought to dissipate his fears in the oblivion of 
sleep. 

At noon, on the 2d of July, soundings were taken. M. Maudet, ensign 
of the watch, was convinced we were upon the edge of the Arguin bank. 
The captain said to him, as well as to every one, that there was no cause 
of alarm. In the meanwhile, the wind blowing with great violence, 
impelled us nearer and nearer to the danger which menaced us. A species 
of stupor overpowered all our spirits, and every one preserved a mournful 
silence, as if they were persuaded we would soon touch the bank. The 
color of the water entirely changed, a circumstance even remarked by the 
ladies. About three in the afternoon, a universal cry was heard upon deck. 
All declared they saw sand rolling among the ripples of the sea. The 
captain in an instant ordered to sound. The line gave eighteen fathoms; 
but on a second sounding it only gave six. He at last saw his error, and 
hesitated no longer on changing his route, but it was too late. A strong 
concussion told us the frigate had struck. Terror and consternation were 
instantly depicted on every face. The crew stood motionless; the pas¬ 
sengers in utter despair. In the midst of this general panic, cries of ven¬ 
geance were heard against the principal author of our misfortunes, wishing 
to throw him overboard; but some generous persons interposed, and 
endeavored to calm their spirits by diverting their attention to the means 
of our safety. The confusion was already so great, that M. Poinsignon, 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


436 

commandant of a troop, struck my sister Caroline a severe blow, doubt¬ 
less thinking it was one of his soldiers. At this crisis my father was 
buried in profound sleep, but he quickly awoke, the cries and the tumult 
upon deck having informed him of our misfortunes. He poured out a 
thousand reproaches on those whose ignorance and boasting had been so 
disastrous to us. However, they set about the means of averting our 
danger. The officers, with an altered voice, issued their orders, expecting 
every moment to see the ship go in pieces. They strove to lighten her, 
but the sea was very rough and the current strong. Much time was lost 
in doing nothing; they only pursued half measures, and all of them 
unfortunately failed. 

When it was discovered that the danger of the Medusa was not so 
great as was at first supposed, various persons proposed to transport the 
troops to the island of Arguin, which was conjectured to be not far from 
the place where we lay aground. Others advised to take us all succes¬ 
sively to the coast of the Desert of Sahara by the means of our boats, and 
with provisions sufficient to form a caravan, to reach the island of St. 
Louis, at Senegal. M. Schmaltz, the governor, suggested the making 
of a raft of sufficient size to carry two hundred men, with provisions: 
which latter plan was seconded by the two officers of the frigate, and put 
in execution. The fatal raft was then begun to be constructed, which 
would, they said, carry provisions for every one. Masts, planks, boards, 
and cordage, were thrown overboard. Two officers were charged with 
the framing of these together. Large barrels were emptied and placed 
at the angles of the machine, and the workmen were taught to say that 
the passengers would be in greater security there, and more at their ease, 
than in the boats. However, as it was forgotten to erect rails, every one 
supposed, and with reason, that those who had given the plan of the raft, 
had no design of embarking upon it themselves. When it was completed, 
the two chief officers of the frigate publicly promised, that all the boats 
would tow it to the shores of the Desert; and, when there, stores of 
provisions and firearms would be given us to form a caravan to take us 
all to Senegal. If these promises had been fulfilled, every one would 
have been saved, and humanity would not now have had to deplore the 
scenes of horror consequent on the wreck of the Medusa! On the third 
of July the efforts were renewed to disengage the frigate, but without 
success. We then prepared to quit her. The sea became very rough, 
and the wind blew with great violence. Nothing now was heard but the 
plaintive and confused cries of a multitude, consisting of more than four 
hundred persons, who, seeing death before their eyes, deplored their 
hard fate in bitter lamentations. On the 4th there was a glimpse of hope. 
At the hour the tide flowed, the frigate, being considerably lightened by 
all that had been thrown overboard, was found nearly afloat; and it is 
very certain, if on that day they had thrown the artillery into the water, 
the Medusa would have been saved; but M. Lachaumareys said he could 
not thus sacrifice the king’s cannon, as if the frigate did not belong to 
the king also. However, the sea ebbed, and the ship sinking into the 
sand deeper than ever, made them relinquish that on which depended our 
last ray of hope. On the approach of night the fury of the winds redoubled, 
and the sea became very rough. The frigate then received some tremen¬ 
dous concussions, and the water rushed into the hold in the most terrific 
manner, but the pumps would not work. We had now no alternative 
but to abandon her for the frail boats, which any single wave would 
overwhelm. Frightful gulfs environed us; mountains of water raised 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


437 

their liquid summits in the distance. How were we to escape so many 
dangers? Whither could we go? What hospitable land would receive 
us on its shores? 

My father perceived my distress, but how could he console me? What 
words could calm my fears, and place me above the apprehension of those 
dangers to which we were exposed? How, in a word, could I assume a 
serene appearance, when friends, parents, and all that was most dear to 
me, were, in all human probability, on the very verge of destruction? 
Alas! my fears were but too well founded. For I soon perceived that, 
although we were the only ladies, beside the Misses Schmaltz, who formed 
a part of the governor’s suite, they had the barbarity of intending our 
family to embark upon the raft, where were only soldiers, sailors, planters 
of Cape Verd, and some generous officers, who had not the honor (if it 
could be accounted one) of being considered among the ignorant confi¬ 
dants of MM. Schmaltz and Lachaumareys. My father, indignant at a 
proceeding so indecorous, swore we would not embark upon the raft, 
and that, if we were not judged worthy of a place in one of the six boats, 
he would himself, his wife and children, remain on board the wreck of the 
frigate. The tone in which he spoke these words was that of a man 
resolute to avenge any insult that might be offered to him. The governor 
of Senegal, doubtless fearing the world would one day reproach him for 
his inhumanity, decided we should have a place in one of the boats. 
This having in some measure quieted our fears concerning our unfortunate 
situation, I was desirous of taking some repose, but the uproar among the 
crew was so great I could not obtain it. 

Toward midnight a passenger came to inquire of my father if we were 
disposed to depart; he replied, we had been forbidden to go yet. However 
we were soon convinced that a great part of the crew and various pas¬ 
sengers were secretly preparing to set off in the boats. A conduct so 
perfidious could not fail to alarm us, especially as we perceived among 
those so eager to embark unknown to us, several who had promised, but 
a little while before, not to go without us. 

M. Schmaltz, to prevent that which was going on upon deck, instantly 
rose to endeavor to quiet their minds; but the soldiers had already assumed 
a threatening attitude, and holding cheap the words of their commander, 
swore they would fire upon whosoever attempted to depart in a clandes¬ 
tine manner. The firmness of these brave men produced the desired 
effect, and all was restored to order. The governor returned to his cabin, 
and those who were desirous of departing furtively were confused and 
covered with shame. The governor, however, was ill at ease; and as he 
had heard very distinctly certain energetic words which had been addressed 
to him, he judged it proper to assemble a council. All the officers and 
passengers being collected, M. Schmaltz there solemnly swore before 
them not to abandon the raft, and a second time promised that all the 
boats would tow it to the shore of the desert, where they would all be 
formed into a caravan. I confess this conduct of the governor greatly 
satisfied every member of our family; for we never dreamed he would 
deceive us, nor act in a manner contrary to what he had promised. 

About three in the morning, some hours after the meeting of the 
council, a terrible noise was heard in the powder-room; it was the helm 
which was broken. All who were sleeping were roused by it. On going 
on deck every one was more and more convinced that the frigate was 
lost beyond all recovery. Alas! the wreck was, for our family, the com¬ 
mencement of a horrible series of misfortunes; the two chief officers then 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


438 

decided, with one accord, that all should embark at six in the morning, 
and abandon the ship to the mercy of the waves. After this decision 
followed a scene the most whimsical, and, at the same time, the most 
melancholy that can be well conceived. To have a more distinct idea of 
it, let the reader transport himself in imagination to the midst of the liquid 
plains of the ocean, then let him picture to himself a multitude of all classes, 
of every age, tossed about at the mercy of the waves upon a dismasted 
vessel, foundered, and half submerged; let him not forget these are 
thinking beings, with the certain prospect before them of having reached 
the goal of their existence. 

Separated from the rest of the world by a boundless sea, and having 
no place of refuge but the wreck of a grounded vessel, the multitude 
addressed at first their vows to Heaven, and forgot, for a moment, all 
earthly concerns. Then, suddenly starting from their lethargy, they 
began to look after their wealth, the merchandise they had in small ven¬ 
tures, utterly regardless of the elements that threatened them. The 
miser thinking of the gold contained in his coffers, hastened to put it into 
a place of safety, either by sewing it into the lining of his clothes, or by 
cutting out for it a place in the waistband of his trowsers. The smuggler 
was tearing his hair at not being able to save a chest of contraband which 
he had secretly got on board, and with which he had hoped to have 
gained two or three hundred per cent. Another, selfish to excess, 
was throwing overboard all his hidden money, and amusing himself 
by burning all his effects. A generous officer was opening his port¬ 
manteau, offering caps, stockings, and shirts, to any who would take 
them. These had scarcely gathered together their various effects, 
when they learned that they could not take anything with them; those 
were searching the cabins and store-rooms to carry away every thing 
that was valuable. Ship-boys were discovering the delicate wines and 
tine liquors which a wise foresight had placed in reserve. Soldiers 
and sailors were penetrating into the spirit-room, broaching casks, staving 
others, and drinking till they fell exhausted. Soon the tumult of the 
inebriated made us forget the roaring of the sea which threatened to 
ingulf us. At last the uproar was at its height; the soldiers no longer 
listened to the voice of their captain. Some knit their brows and mut¬ 
tered oaths; but nothing could be done with those whom wine had 
rendered furious. Next, piercing cries, mixed with doleful groans, were 
heard—this was the signal of departure. 

At six o’clock on the morning of the fifth, a great part of the military 
was embarked upon the raft, which was already covered with a large 
sheet of foam. The soldiers were expressly prohibited from taking their 
arms. A young officer of infantry, whose brain seemed to be powerfully 
affected, put his horse beside the barricadoes of the frigate, and then, 
armed with two pistols, threatened to fire upon any one who refused to 
go upon the raft. Forty men had scarcely descended when it sunk to 
the depth of about two feet. To facilitate the embarking of a greater 
number, they were obliged to throw over several barrels of provisions 
which had been placed upon it the day before. In this manner did this 
furious officer get about one hundred and fifty heaped upon that floating 
tomb; but he did not think of adding one more to the number by de¬ 
scending himself, as he ought to have done, but went peaceably away, 
and placed himself in one of the best boats. There should have been 
sixty sailors upon the raft, and there were but about ten. A list had 
been made out on the 4th, assigning each his proper place; but this wise 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


439 

precaution being disregarded, every one pursued the plan he deemed 
best for his own preservation. The precipitation with which they forced 
one hundred and fifty unfortunate beings upon the raft was such that 
they forgot to give them one morsel of biscuit. However, they threw 
toward them twenty-five pounds in a sack, while they were not far from 
the frigate; but it fell into the sea, and was with difficulty recovered. 

During this disaster, the governor of Senegal, who was busied in the 
care of his own dear self, effeminately descended in an arm-chair into 
the barge, where were already various large chests, all kinds of provis¬ 
ions, his dearest friends, his daughter, and his wife. Afterward the 
captain’s boat received twenty-seven persons, among whom were twenty- 
five sailors, good rowers. The shallop, commanded by M. Espiau, took 
forty-five passengers and put off. The boat called the Senegal took 
twenty-five, the pinnace thirty-three, and the yawl, the smallest of all the 
boats, took only ten. 

Almost all the officers, the passengers, the mariners, and supernume¬ 
raries, were already embarked—all but our weeping family, who still 
remained on the boards of the frigate till some charitable souls would 
kindly receive us into a boat. Surprised at this abandonment, I instantly 
felt myself roused, and calling with all my might to the officers of the 
boat, besought them to take our unhappy family along with them. Soon 
after, the barge, in which were the governor of Senegal and all his family, 
approached the Medusa, as if still to take some passengers, for there 
were but few in it. I made a motion to descend, hoping that the Misses 
Schmaltz, who had, till that day, taken a great interest in our family, 
would allow us a place in their boat; but I was mistaken: those ladies, 
who had embarked in a mysterious incognito, had already forgotten us; 
and M. Lachaumareys, who was still on the frigate, positively told me 
they would not embark along with us. Nevertheless I ought to tell, what 
we learned afterward, that the officer who commanded the pinnace had 
received orders to take us in, but, as he was already a great way from 
the frigate, we were certain he had abandoned us. My father, however, 
hailed him, but he persisted on his way to gain the open sea. A short 
while afterward we perceived a small boat upon the waves, which seemed 
desirous to approach the Medusa; it was the yawl. When it was suf¬ 
ficiently near, my father implored the sailors who were in it to take us 
on board, and carry us to the pinnace, where our family ought to be 
placed. They refused. He then seized a firelock, which lay by chance 
upon deck, and swore he would kill every one of them if they refused 
to take us into the yawl, adding that it was the property of the king, and 
that he would have advantage from it as well as another. The sailors 
murmured, but durst not resist, and received all our family, which consisted 
of nine persons, viz: four children, our stepmother, my cousin, my 
sister Caroline, my father, and myself. A small box, filled with valuable 
papers, which we wished to save, some clothes, two bottles of ratafia, 
which we had endeavored to preserve amid our misfortunes, were seized 
and thrown overboard by the sailors of the yawl, who told us we would 
find in the pinnace everything which we could wish for our voyage. 
We had then only the clothes which covered us, never thinking of dress¬ 
ing ourselves in two suits; but the loss which affected us most was that 
of several manuscripts, at which my father had been laboring for a long 
while. Our trunks, our linen, and various chests of merchandise of great 
value ; in a word, everything we possessed was left in the Medusa. 
When we boarded the pinnace the officer who commanded it began 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


440 

excusing himself for having set off without forewarning us, as he had been 
ordered, and said a thousand things in his justification. But, without 
believing half of his fine protestations, we felt very happy in having over¬ 
taken him; for it is most certain that they had no intention of encumber¬ 
ing themselves with our unfortunate family. I say encumber, for it is 
evident that four children, one of whom was yet at the breast, were very 
indifferent beings to people who were actuated by a selfishness beyond all 
parallel. When we were seated in the long-boat, my father dismissed the 
sailors with the yawl, telling them he would ever gratefully remember 
their services. They speedily departed, but little satisfied with the good 
action they had done. My father hearing their murmurs and the abuse 
they poured out against us, said, loud enough for all in the boat to hear, 
“We are not surprised sailors are destitute of shame, when their officers 
blush at being compelled to do a good action.” The commandant of 
the boat feigned not to understand the reproaches conveyed in these 
words, and to divert our minds from brooding over our wrongs, endeavored 
to counterfeit the man of gallantry. 

All the boats were already far from the Medusa, when they were brought 
to, to form a chain in order to tow the raft. The barge, in which was 
the governor of Senegal, took the first tow, then all the other boats in 
succession joined themselves to that. M. Lachaumareys embarked, 
although there yet remained upon the Medusa more than sixty persons. 
Then the brave and generous M. Espiau, commander of the shallop, 
quitted the line of boats, and returned to the frigate, with the intention 
of saving all the wretches who had been abandoned. They all sprung 
into the shallop; but as it was very much overloaded, seventeen unfortu¬ 
nates preferred remaining on board rather than expose themselves as 
well as their companions to certain death. But, alas! the greater part 
afterward fell victims to their fears or their devotion. Fifty-two days after 
they were abandoned, no more than three of them were alive, and these 
looked more like skeletons than men. They told that their miserable 
companions had gone afloat upon planks and hen-coops, after having 
waited in vain forty-two days for the succor which had been promised 
them, and that all had perished. 

The shallop carrying with difficulty all those she had saved from the 
Medusa, slowly rejoined the line of boats which towed the raft. M. 
Espiau earnestly besought the officers of the other boats to take some of 
them along with them; but they refused, alleging to the generous officer 
that he ought to keep them in his own boat, as he had gone for them him¬ 
self. M. Espiau, finding it impossible to keep them all without exposing 
them to the utmost peril, steered right for a boat which I will not name. 
Immediately a sailor sprung from the shallop into the sea, and endeavored 
to reach it by swimming; and when he was about to enter it, an officer, 
who possessed great influence, pushed him back, and drawing his sabre, 
threatened to cut off his hands if he again made the attempt. The poor 
wretch regained the shallop, which was very near the pinnace, where 
we were. Various friends of my father supplicated M. Laperere, the 
officer of our boat, to receive him on board. My father had his arms 
already out to catch him, when M. Laperere instantly let go the rope 
which attached us to the other boats, and tugged off with all his force. 
At the same instant every boat imitated the execrable example ; and 
wishing to shun the approach of the shallop, which sought for assistance, 
stood off from the raft, abandoning, in the midst of the ocean, and to the 
fury of the waves, the miserable mortals whom they had sworn to land 






















SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


441 

on the shores of the desert. Scarcely hfad these cowards broken their 
oath, when we saw the French flag flying upon the raft. The confidence 
of these unfortunate persons was so great, that when they saw the first 
boat, which had the tow, removing from them, they all cried out, The 
rope is broken! the rope is broken! But when no attention was paid to 
their observation, they instantly perceived the treachery of the wretches 
who had left them so basely. Then cries of Vive le Roi arose from the 
raft, as if the poor fellows were calling to their father for assistance; or 
as if they had been persuaded that, at the rallying word, the officers of 
the boats would return, and not abandon their countrymen. The officers 
repeated the cry of Vive le Roi , without a doubt to insult them; but 
more particularly M. Lachaumareys, who, assuming a martial attitude, 
waved his hat in the air. Alas! what availed these false professions? 
Frenchmen, menaced with the greatest peril, were demanding assistance 
with the cries of Vive le Roi; yet none were found sufficiently generous, 
nor sufficiently French, to go to aid them. After a silence of some 
minutes, horrible cries were heard; the air resounded with the groans, 
the lamentations, the imprecations of these wretched beings. The raft 
already appeared to be buried under the waves, and its unfortunate pas¬ 
sengers immersed. The fatal machine was drifted by currents far behind 
the wreck of the frigate ; without cable, anchor, mast, sail, oars, in a 
word, without the smallest means of enabling them to save themselves. 
Each wave that struck it made them stumble in heaps on one another. 
Their feet getting entangled among the cordage, and between the planks, 
bereaved them of the faculty of moving. Maddened by these misfortunes, 
suspended, adrift upon the merciless ocean, they were soon tortured be¬ 
tween the pieces of wood which formed the scaffold on which they floated 
The bones of their feet and their legs were bruised and broken every 
time the fury of the waves agitated the raft; their flesh covered with 
contusions and hideous wounds, dissolved, as it were, in the briny waves, 
while the roaring flood around them was colored with their blood. 

As the raft, when it was abandoned, was nearly two leagues from the 
frigate, it was impossible these unfortunate persons could reach it; they 
were soon after far out at sea. These victims still appeared above their 
floating tomb; and, stretching out their supplicating hands toward the 
boats which fled from them, seemed yet to invoke, for the last time, the 
names of the wretches who had deceived them. My father, exasperated 
to excess, and bursting with rage at seeing so much cowardice and inhu¬ 
manity among the officers of the boats, began to regret that he had not 
accepted the place which had been assigned for us upon the raft. “At 
least,” said he, " we would have died with the brave, or we would have 
returned to the wreck of the Medusa ; and not have had the disgrace 
of saving ourselves with cowards.” Although this produced no effect 
upon the officers, it proved very fatal to us afterward; for, on our arrival 
at Senegal, it was reported to the governor; and, very probably, was the 
principal cause of all those evils and vexations which we endured in 
that colony. 

Let us now turn our attention to the several situations of all those who 
were endeavoring to save themselves in the different boats, as well as to 
those left upon the wreck of the Medusa. We have already seen that 
the frigate was half sunk when it was deserted, presenting nothing but a 
hulk and a wreck. Nevertheless, seventeen still remained upon it, and had 
food, which, although damaged, enabled them to support themselves for 
a considerable time ; while the raft was abandoned to float at the mercy 


U2 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


of the waves, upon the vast surface of the ocean. One hundred and fifty 
wretches were embarked upon it, sunk to the depth of at least three feet 
on its fore-part, and on its poop immersed even to the middle. What 
victuals they had were soon consumed, or spoiled by the salt water ; and 
perhaps some, as the waves hurried them along, became food for the 
monsters of the deep. Two only of all the boats which left the Medusa, 
and these with very few people in them, were provisioned with every 
necessity; these struck off with security and dispatch. But the condi¬ 
tion of those who were in the shallop was but little better than those 
upon the raft; their great distance from the shore gave them the most 
melancholy anticipations of the future. Their worthy commander, 
M. Espiau, had no other hope but of reaching the shore as soon as pos¬ 
sible. The other boats were less filled with people, but they were 
scarcely better provisioned; and, as by a species of fatality, the pinnace, 
in which were our family, was destitute of everything. Our provisions 
consisted of a barrel of biscuit and a tierce of water; and. to add to our 
misfortunes, the biscuit being soaked in the sea, it was almost impossible 
to swallow one morsel of it. Each passenger in our boat was obliged to 
sustain his wretched existence with a glass of water, which he could get 
only once a day. To tell how this happened, how this boat was so poorly 
supplied, while there was abundance left upon the Medusa, is far beyond 
my power. But it is at least certain that the greater part of the officers, 
commanding the boats, the shallop, the pinnace, the Senegal boat, and 
the yawl, were persuaded, when they quitted the frigate, that they would 
not abandon the raft, but that all the expedition would sail together to the 
coast of Sahara; that when there, the boats would be again sent to the 
Medusa, to take provisions, arms, and those who were left there; but it 
appears the chiefs had decided otherwise. 

After abandoning the raft, although scattered, all the boats formed a 
little fleet, and followed the same route. All who were sincere hoped 
to arrive the same day at the coast of the desert, and that every one would 
get on shore; but M M. Schmaltz and Lachaumareys gave orders to take 
the route for Senegal. This sudden change in the resolutions of the 
chiefs was like a thunderbolt to the officers commanding the boats. 
Having nothing on board but what was barely necessary to enable us to 
allay the cravings of hunger for one day, we were all sensibly affected. 
The other boats, which, like ourselves, hoped to have got on shore at the 
nearest point, were a little better provisioned than ,we were; they had at 
least a little wine, which supplied the place of other necessaries. We 
then demanded some from them, explaining our situation; but none would 
assist us, not even Captain Lachaumareys, who, drinking to a kept mis¬ 
tress, supported by two sailors, swore he had not one drop on board. We 
were next desirous of addressing the boat of the governor of Senegal, 
where we were persuaded were plenty of provisions of every kind, such 
as oranges, biscuits, cakes, comfits, plums, and even the finest liqueurs ; 
but my father opposed it, so well was he assured we would not obtain 
anything. 

We will now turn to the condition of those on the raft, when the boats 
left them to themselves. If all the boats had continued dragging the raft 
forward, favored as we were by the breeze from the sea, we would have 
been able to have conducted them to the shove in less than two days. 
But an inconceivable fatality caused the generous plan to be abandoned. 
When the raft had lost sight of the boats, a spirit of sedition began to 
manifest itself in furious cries. They then began to regard one another 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 443 

with ferocious looks, and to thirst for one another’s flesh. Some one 
had already whispered of having recourse to that monstrous extremity, 
and of commencing with the fattest and youngest. A proposition so 
atrocious filled the brave Captain Dupont and his worthy lieutenant, M 
L’Heureux, with horror; and that courage which had so often supported 
them in the field of glory, now forsook them. Among the first who fell 
under the hatchets of the assassins was a young woman who had been 
seen devouring the body of her husband. When her turn was come, she 
sought a little wine, as a last favor, then rose, and without uttering one 
word, threw herself into the sea. Captain Dupont being proscribed for 
having refused to partake of the sacrilegious viands on which the monsters 
were feeding, was saved, as by a miracle, from the hands of the butchers. 
Scarcely had they seized him to lead him to the slaughter, when a large 
pole, which served in place of a mast, fell upon his body; and believing 
that his legs were broken, they contented themselves by throwing him into 
the sea. The unfortunate captain plunged, disappeared, and they thought 
him already in another world. 

Providence, however, revived the strength of the unfortunate warrior. 
He emerged under the beams of the raft, and clinging with all his might, 
holding his head above water, he remained between two enormous pieces 
of wood, while the rest of his body was hid in the sea. After more than 
two hours of suffering, Captain Dupont spoke in a low voice to his 
lieutenant, who by chance was seated near the place of concealment. 
Dupont was instantly drawn from the water, and L’Heureux obtained 
for his unfortunate comrade again a place upon the raft. Those who 
had been so inveterate against him, touched at what Providence had 
done for him in so miraculous a manner, decided, with one accord, to 
allow him entire liberty upon the raft. 

The sixty unfortunates who had escaped from the first massacre, were 
soon reduced to fifty, then to forty, and at last to twenty-eight. The 
least murmur, or the smallest complaint, at the moment of distributing 
the provisions, was a crime punished with immediate death. In conse¬ 
quence of such a regulation, it may easily be presumed the raft was soon 
lightened. In the meanwhile the wine diminished sensibly, and the 
half rations very much displeased a certain chief of the conspiracy. On 
purpose to avoid being reduced to that extremity, the executive power 
decided it was much wiser to drown thirteen people , and to get full rations, 
than that twenty-eight should have half rations. After the last catastrophe, 
the chiefs of the conspiracy, fearful doubtless of being assassinated in 
their turn, threw all the arms into the sea, and swore an inviolable 
friendship with the heroes which the hatchet had spared. On the 17th 
of July, in the morning, Captain Parnajon, commandant of the Argus 
brig, still found fifteen men on the raft. They were immediately taken 
on board, and conducted to Senegal. 

On the 5th of July, at ten in the morning, one hour after abandoning 
the raft, and three after quitting the Medusa, M. Laperere, the officer of 
our boat, made the first distribution of provisions. Each passenger had 
a small glass of water and nearly the fourth of a biscuit. Each drank his 
allowance of water at one draught, but it was found impossible to swallow 
one morsel of our biscuit, it being so impregnated with sea-watejr. It 
happened, however, that some was not quite so saturated. Of these we 
ate a small portion, and put back the remainder for a future day. Our 
voyage would have been sufficiently agreeable, if the beams of the sun 
had not been so fierce. On the evening we perceived the shores of the 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDIJSA. 


444 

deseit; but as the two chiefs (MM. Schmaltz and Lachaumareys) wished 
to go right to Senegal, notwithstanding we were still one hundred leagues 
from it, we were not allowed to land. Several officers remonstrated, 
both on account of our want of provisions and the crowded condition of 
the boats for undertaking so dangerous a voyage. Others urged with 
equal force, that it would be dishonoring the French name if we were 
to neglect the unfortunate people on the raft, and insisted we should be 
set on shore, and while we waited there, three boats should return to 
look after the raft, and three to the wreck of the frigate, to take up the 
seventeen who were left there, as well as a sufficient quantity of provis¬ 
ions to enable us to go to Senegal by the way of Barbary. But MM. 
Schmaltz and Lachaumareys, whose boats were sufficiently well provis¬ 
ioned, scouted the advice of their subalterns, and ordered them to cast 
anchor till the following morning. They were obliged to obey these 
orders, and to relinquish their designs. 

On the morning of the 6th of July, at five o’clock, all the boats were 
under way on the route to Senegal. The boats of MM. Schmaltz and 
Lachaumareys took the lead along the coast, and all the expedition 
followed. About eight, several sailors in our boat, with threats, demanded 
to be set on shore; but M. Laperere, not acceding to their requests, 
the whole were about to revolt and seize the command; but the firmness 
of this officer quelled the mutineers. In a spring which he made to 
seize a firelock which a sailor persisted in keeping in his possession, he 
almost tumbled in the sea. My father fortunately was near him, and held 
him by his clothes, but he had instantly to quit him for fear of losing his hat, 
which the waves were floating away. A short while after this slight 
accident, the shallop, which we had lost sight of since the morning, 
appeared desirous of rejoining us. We plied all hands to avoid her, for 
we were afraid of one another, and thought that that boat, encumbered 
with so many people, wished to board us, to oblige us to take some of 
its passengers, as M. Espiau would not suffer them to be abandoned like 
those upon the raft. That officer hailed us at a distance, offering to 
take our family on board, adding, he was anxious to take about sixty people 
to the desert. The officer of our boat, thinking that this was a pretence, 
replied, we preferred suffering where we were. It even appeared to us 
that M. Espiau had hid some of his people under the benches of the 
shallop. But, alas! in the end we deeply deplored being so suspicious, 
and of having so outraged the devotion of the most generous officer of 
the Medusa. A second distribution of provisions was now made; each 
received a small glass of water and about the eighth part of a biscuit. 
Notwithstanding our meager fare, every one seemed content, in the per¬ 
suasion we would reach Senegal by the morrow. But how vain were all 
our hopes, and what sufferings had we yet to endure! 

At half past seven the sky was overcast with stormy clouds. The 
serenity we had admired a little while before entirely disappeared, and 
gave place to the most gloomy obscurity. Suddenly a frightful noise 
was heard from the west, and all the waves of the sea rushed to founder 
our frail bark. A fearful silence succeeded to the general consternation. 
Every tongue was mute, and none durst communicate to his neighbor the 
horror with which his mind was impressed. At intervals the cries of the 
children rent our hearts. At that instant a weeping and agonized mother 
bared her breast to her dying child, but it yielded nothing to appease the 
thirst of the little innocent who pressed it in vain. Having full before our 
eyes the prospect of inevitable death, we gave ourselves up to our 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 445 

unfortunate condition, and addressed our prayers to Heaven. The winds 
growled with the utmost fury; the tempestuous waves arose exasperated. 
In their terrific encounter a mountain of water was precipitated into our 
boat, carrying away one of the sails and the greater part of the effects 
which the sailors had saved from the Medusa. Our bark was nearly 
sunk; the females and the children lay rolling in its bottom, drinking the 
waters of bitterness ; and their cries, mixed with the roaring of the waves 
and the furious north wind, increased the horrors of the scene. 

Every soul in the boat was seized with the same perturbation, but it 
manifested itself in different ways. One part of the sailors remained 
motionless, in a bewildered state; the other cheered and encouraged one 
another; the children, locked in the arms of their parents, wept inces¬ 
santly. Some demanded drink, vomiting the salt water which choked 
them; others, in short, embraced as for the last time, entwining their arms and 
vowing to die together. In the meanwhile the sea became rougher and 
rougher. Our boat, beset on all sides by the winds, and at every instant 
tossed on the summit of mountains of water, was very nearly sunk, in 
spite of our every effort in bailing it when we discovered a large hole in 
its poop. It was instantly stuffed with everything we could find: old 
clothes, sleeves of shirts, shreds of coats, shawls, useless bonnets, every¬ 
thing was employed, and secured us as far as it was possible. During 
the space of six hours we rowed, suspended alternately between hope 
and fear, between life and death. At last, toward the middle of the night, 
Heaven, which had seen our resignation, commanded the floods to be 
still. Instantly the sea became less rough, the vail which covered the 
sky became less obscure, the stars again shone out, and the tempest 
seemed to withdraw. A general exclamation of joy and thankfulness 
issued at one instant from every mouth. 

The day at last, the day so much desired, entirely restored the calm; 
but it brought no other consolation. During the night the currents, the 
waves, and the winds had taken us so far out to sea, that on the dawning 
of the 7th of July we saw nothing but sky and water, without knowing 
whither to direct our course; for our compass had been broken during 
the tempest. In this hopeless condition we continued to steer sometimes 
to the right and sometimes to the left, until the sun arose, and at last 
showed us the east. On the morning of the 7th of July we again saw 
the shores of the desert, notwithstanding we were yet a great distance 
from it. The sailors renewed their murmurings, wishing to get on shore, 
with the hope of being able to get some wholesome plants and some more 
palatable water than that of the sea; but as we were afraid of the Moors, 
their request was opposed. However, M. Laperere proposed to take 
them as near as he could to the first breakers on the coast, and when 
there, those who wished to go on shore should throw themselves into the 
sea and swim to land. Eleven accepted the proposal; but when we had 
reached the first waves, none had the courage to brave the mountains of water 
which rolled between them and the beach. Our sailors then betook them¬ 
selves to their benches and oars, and promised to be more quiet for the 
future. A short while after, a third distribution was made since our 
departure from the Medusa; and nothing more remained than four pints 
of water and one half dozen biscuits. What steps were we to take in 
this cruel situation? According to the calculation of our commanding 
officer, we could arrive at Senegal on the morrow. Deceived by the 
false account, we preferred suffering one day more, rather than to be 
taken by the Moors of the desert, or perish among the breakers. We 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


44J 

had now no more than a small half glass of water and the seventh of a 
biscuit. Exposed as we were to the heat of the sun, which darted its rays 
perpendicularly on our heads, that ration, though small, would have been 
a great relief to us ; but the distribution was delayed to the morrow. We 
were then obliged to drink the bitter sea-water, ill as it was calculated to 
quench our thirst. Must I tell it? thirst had so withered the lungs of our 
sailors that they drank salter water than that of the sea! Our numbers 
diminished daily, and nothing but the hope of arriving at the colony on 
the following day sustained our frail existence. My young brothers and 
sisters wept incessantly for water. The little Laura, aged six years, lay 
dying at the feet of her mother. Her mournful cries so moved the soul 
of my unfortunate father, that he was on the eve of opening a vein to 
quench the thirst which consumed his child; but a wise person opposed 
his design, observing that all the blood in his body would not prolong the 
life of his infant child one moment. 

The freshness of the night-wind procured us some respite. We anchored 
pretty near to the shore, and, though dying of famine, each got a tranquil 
sleep. On the morning of the 8th of July, at break of day, we took the 
route of Senegal. A short while after, the wind fell, and we had a dead 
calm. We endeavored to row, but our strength was exhausted. A fourth 
and last distribution was made, and in the twinkling of an eye, our last 
resources were consumed. We were forty-two people who had to feed 
upon six biscuits and about four pints of water, with no hope of a farther 
supply. Then came the moment for deciding whether we were to perish 
among the breakers which defended the approach to the shores of the 
desert, or to die of famine in continuing our route. The majority pre¬ 
ferred the last species of misery. We continued our progress along the 
shore, painfully pulling our oars. Upon the beach were distinguished 
several downs of white sand, and some small trees. We were thus creeping 
along the coast, observing a mournful silence, when a sailor suddenly 
exclaimed, “Behold the Moors!” We did, in fact, see various indi¬ 
viduals upon the rising ground, walking at a quick pace, and whom we 
took to be the Arabs of the Desert. As we were very near the shore, 
we stood farther out to sea, fearing that these pretended Moors, or Arabs, 
would throw themselves into the sea, swim out, and take us. Some hours 
after, we observed several people upon the eminence, who seemed to 
make signals to us. We examined them attentively, and soon recognized 
them to be our companions in misfortune. We replied to them by attaching 
a white handkerchief to the top of our mast. Then we resolved to land, 
at the risk of perishing among the breakers, which were very strong toward 
the shore, although the sea was calm. On approaching the beach we 
went toward the right, where the waves seemed less agitated, and endea¬ 
vored to reach it, with the hope of being able more easily to land. Scarcely 
had we directed our course to that point, when we perceived a great 
number of people standing near to a little wood surrounding the sand¬ 
hills. We recognized them to be the passengers of that boat, who, like 
ourselves, were deprived of provisions. 

The helm of the boat was again given to the old pilot, who had already 
so happily steered us through the dangers of the storm. He instantly 
threw into the sea the mast, the sails, and everything that could impede 
our proceedings. When we came to the first landing point, several of 
our shipwrecked companions, who had reached the shore, ran and hid 
themselves behind the hills, not to see us perish; others made signs not 
to approach at that place; some covered their eyes with their hands: 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 447 

others, at last despising the danger, precipitated themselves into the 
waves to receive us into their arms. We then saw a spectacle that made 
us shudder. We had already doubled two ranges of breakers; but those 
which we had still to cross raised their foaming waves to a prodigious 
height, then sunk with a hollow and monstrous sound, sweeping along 
a long line of the coast. Our boat, sometimes greatly elevated, and 
sometimes ingulfed between the waves, seemed now given up to utter 
ruin. Bruised, battered, tossed about on all hands, it turned of itself, 
and refused to obey the kind hand which directed it. At that instant 
a huge wave rushed from the open sea and dashed against the poop; the 
boat plunged, disappeared, and we were all among the waves. Our 
sailors, whose strength had returned at the presence of danger, redoubled 
their efforts, uttering mournful sounds. Our bark groaned, the oars 
were broken ; it was thought aground, but it was stranded; it was upon 
its side. The last sea rushed upon us with the impetuosity of a torrent. 
We were up to the neck in water ; the bitter sea-froth choked us. The 
grapnel was thrown out. The sailors threw themselves into the sea ; 
they took the children in their arms; returned, and took us upon their 
shoulders ; and I found myself seated upon the sand on the shore, by the 
side of my step-mother, my brothers and sisters, almost dead. Every 
one was upon the beach except my father and some sailors; but. that good 
man arrived at last, to mingle his tears with those of his family and friends. 

After we had a little recovered from the fainting and fatigue of our 
getting on shore, our fellow-sufferers told us they had landed in the 
forenoon, and had cleared the breakers by the strength of their oars and 
sails ; but they had not all been so lucky as we were. One unfortunate 
person, too desirous of getting quickly on shore, had his legs broken under 
the shallop, and was taken and laid on the beach, and left to the care of 
Providence. M. Espiau, commander of the shallop, reproached us foi 
having doubted him when he wished to board us to take our family along 
with him. It was most true he had landed sixty-three people that day. 
A short while after our refusal, he took the passengers of the yawl, who 
would infallibly have perished in the stormy night of the 6th and 7th. 
The boat named the Senegal, commanded by M. Maudet, had made the 
shore at the same time with M. Espiau. The boats of MM. Schmaltz 
and Lachaumareys were the only ones which continued the route for 
Senegal, while nine-tenths of the Frenchmen intrusted to these gentlemen 
were butchering each other on the raft, or dying of hunger on the burning 
sands of Sahara. 

About seven in the morning a caravan was formed to penetrate into 
the interior, for the purpose of finding some fresh water. We did accor¬ 
dingly find some at a little distance from the sea, by digging among the 
sand. Every one instantly flocked round the little wells, which furnished 
enough to quench our thirst. This brackish water was found to be 
delicious, although it had a sulphurous taste: its color was that of whey. 
As all our clothes were wet and in tatters, and as we had nothing to 
change them, some generous officers offered theirs. My step-mother, 
my cousin, and my sister were dressed in them; for myself, I preferred 
keeping my own. We remained nearly an hour beside our beneficient 
fountain, then took the route for Senegal; that is, a southerly direction, 
for we did not know exactly where that country lay. It was agreed that 
the females and children should walk before the caravan, that they might 
not be left behind. The sailors voluntarily carried the youngest on their 
shoulders, and every one took the route along the coast. Notwithstanding 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


448 

it was nearly seven o’clock, the sand was quite burning, and we suffered 
severely, walking without shoes, having lost them while landing. As 
soon as we arrived on the shore, we went to walk on the wet sand, to 
cool us a little. Thus we traveled during all the night, without encoun¬ 
tering anything but shells, which wounded our feet. 

In the forenoon of the next day, two officers of marine complained 
that our family incommoded the progress of the caravan. It is true, the 
females and the children could not walk so quickly as the men. We 
walked as fast as it was possible for us, nevertheless we often fell behind, 
which obliged them to halt till we came up. These officers, joined with 
other individuals, considered among themselves whether they would wait 
for us, or abandon us in the desert. I will be bold to say, however, that 
but few were of the latter opinion. My father being informed of what 
was plotting against us, stepped up to the chiefs of the conspiracy and 
reproached them in the bitterest terms for their selfishness and brutality. 
The dispute waxed hot. Those who were desirous of leaving us drew 
their swords, and my father put his hand upon a poniard, with which he 
had provided himself on quitting the frigate. At this scene we threw 
ourselves in between them, conjuring him rather to remain in the desert 
with his family, than seek the assistance of those who were, perhaps, less 
humane than the Moors themselves. Several people took our part, par¬ 
ticularly M. Bregnere, captain of infantry, who quietpd the dispute by 
saying to his soldiers, “My friends, you are Frenchnten, and I have the 
honor of being your commander; let us never abandon an unfortunate 
family in the desert, so long as we are able to be .of use to them.” This 
brief, but energetic speech, caused those to blush who wished to leave 
us. All then joined with the old captain, saying they would not leave 
us, on condition we would walk quicker. M. Bregnere and his soldiers 
replied, they did not wish to impose conditions on those to whom they 
were desirous of doing a favor; and the unfortunate family of Picard 
were again on the road with the whole caravan. Some time after this 
dispute M. Rogery, member of the Philanthropic Society of Cape Verd, 
secretly left the caravan, striking into the middle of the desert, without 
knowing very well what he sought. That intrepid traveler had not time 
to find that after which he searched; for, a few days after, he was captured 
by the Moors, and taken to Senegal, where the governor paid his ransom. 

About noon hunger was felt so powerfully among us that it was agreed 
upon to go to the small hills of sand, which were near the coast, to see 
if any herbs could be found fit for eating; but we only got poisonous 
plants, among which were various kinds of euphorbium. Convolvuluses 
of a bright green carpeted the downs; but on tasting their leaves we 
found them as bitter as gall. The caravan rested in this place, while 
several officers went farther into the interior. They came back in about 
an hour, loaded with wild purslain, which they distributed to each of us. 
Every one instantly devoured his bunch of herbage without leaving the 
smallest branch; but as our hunger was far from being satisfied with this 
small allowance, the soldiers and sailors betook themselves to look for 
more. They soon brought back a sufficient quantity, which was equally 
distributed, and devoured upon the spot, so delicious had hunger made 
that food to us. For myself, I declared I never ate anything with so 
much appetite in all my life. Water was also found in this place, but it 
was of an abominable taste. After this truly frugal repast we continued 
our route. The heat was insupportable in the last degree. The sands 
on which we trod were burning; nevertheless, several of us walked on 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 449 

these scorching coals without shoes; and the females had nothing but 
their hair for a cap. When we reached the sea-shore we all ran and lay 
down among the waves. After remaining there some time, we took our 
route along the west beach. On our journey we met with several large 
crabs, which were of considerable service to us. Every now and then 
we endeavored to slake our thirst by sucking their crooked claws. About 
nine at night we halted between two pretty high sand-hills. After a 
short talk concerning our misfortunes, all seemed desirous of passing the 
night in this place, notwithstanding we heard on every side the roaring 
of leopards. We deliberated on the means of securing ourselves, but 
sleep soon put an end to our fears. Scarcely had we slumbered a few 
hours when a terrible roaring of wild beasts awoke us, and made us stand 
on our defense. It was a beautiful moonlight night, and, in spite of my 
fears and the horrible aspect of the place, nature never appeared so 
sublime to me before. Instantly something was announced that resembled 
a lion. This information was listened to with the greatest emotion. Every 
one being desirous of verifying the truth, fixed upon something he thought 
to be the object; one believed he saw the long teeth of the king of the 
forest; another was convinced his mouth was already open to devour us; 
several, armed with muskets, aimed at the animal, and advancing a few 
steps, discovered the pretended lion to be nothing more than a shrub 
fluctuating in the breeze. However, the howlings of ferocious beasts had 
so frightened us, being yet heard at intervals, that we again sought the 
sea-shore, on purpose to continue our route toward the south. 

Our situation had been thus perilous during the night; nevertheless 
at the break of day we had the satisfaction of finding none missing. 
About sunrise we held a little to the east to get farther into the interior 
to find fresh water, and lost much time in a vain search. The country 
which we now traversed was a little less arid than that which we had 
passed the preceding day. The hills, the valleys, and a vast plain of 
sand were strewed with mimosa, or sensitive plants, presenting to our sight 
a scene we had never before seen in the desert. The country is bounded 
as it were by a chain of mountains, or high downs of sand, in the direction 
of north and south, without the slightest trace of cultivation. 

Toward ten in the morning some of our companions were desirous of 
making observations in the interior, and they did not go in vain. They 
instantly returned and told us they had seen two Arab tents upon a slight 
rising ground. We instantly directed our steps thither. We had to pass 
great downs of sand, very slippery, and arrived in a large plain, streaked 
here and there with verdure; but the turf was so hard and piercing we 
could scarcely walk over it without wounding our feet. Our presence 
in these frightful solitudes put to flight three or four Moorish shepherds, who 
herded a small flock of sheep and goats in an oasis. At last we arrived 
at the tents after which we were searching, and found in them three 
Mooresses and two little children, who did not seem in the least frightened 
by our visit. A negro servant, belonging to an officer of marine, inter¬ 
preted between us and the good women, who, when they had heard of 
our misfortunes, offered us millet and water for payment. We bought 
a little of that grain at the rate of thirty pence a handful; the water was 
got for three francs a glass; it was very good, and none grudged the 
money it cost. As a glass of water, with a handful of millet, was but a 
poor dinner for famished people, my father bought two kids, which they 
would not give him under twenty piasters. We immediately killed them, 
and our Mooresses boiled them in a large kettle. While our repast was 
29 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


450 

preparing, ray father, who could not afford the whole of the expense, got 
others to contribute to it; but an old officer of marine, who was to have 
been captain of the port of Senegal, was the only person who refused, 
notwithstanding he had about him nearly three thousand francs, which he 
boasted of in the end. Several soldiers and sailors had seen him count 
* it in round pieces of gold, on coming ashore on the desert, and reproached 
him for his sordid avarice; but he seemed insensible to their reproaches, 
nor ate the less of his portion of kid with his companions in misfortune. 

When about to resume our journey, we saw several Moors approaching 
to us armed with lances. Our people instantly seized their arms, and 
put themselves in readiness to defend us, in case of an attack. Two 
officers, followed by several soldiers and sailors, with our interpreter, 
advanced to discover their intentions. They instantly returned with the 
Moors, who said, that, far from wishing to do us harm, they had come to 
offer us their assistance, and to conduct us to Senegal. This offer being 
accepted of with gratitude by all of us, the Moors, of whom we had 
been so afraid, became our protectors and friends, verifying the old proverb, 
there are good people everywhere! As the camp of the Moors was at 
some considerable distance from where we were, we set off all together to 
reach it before night. After having walked about two leagues through 
the burning sands, we found ourselves again upon the shore. Toward 
night our conductors made us strike again into the interior, saying we. 
were very near their camp, which is called, in their language, Berkelet. 
But the short distance of the Moors was found very long by the females 
and the children, on account of the hills of sand which we had to ascend and 
descend every instant, also of prickly shrubs over which we were frequently 
obliged to walk. Those who were barefooted felt most severely, at this 
time, the want of'their shoes. I myself lost among the bushes various 
shreds of my dress, and my feet and legs were all streaming with blood. 
At length, after two long hours of walking and suffering, we arrived at 
the camp of that tribe to which belonged our Arab conductors. We had 
scarcely got into the camp, when the dogs, the children, and the Moorish 
women began to annoy us. Some of them threw sand in our eyes, others 
amused themselves by snatching at our hair, on pretence of wishing to 
examine it. This pinched us, that spit upon us; the dogs bit our legs, 
while the old harpies cut the buttons from the officers’ coats, or endeavored 
to take away the lace. Our conductors, however, had pity on us, and 
chased away the dogs and the curious crowd, who had already made us 
suffer as much as the thorns which had torn our feet. The chiefs of the 
camp, our guides, and some good women, at last set about getting us 
some supper. Water in abundance was given us without payment, and 
they sold us fish dried in the sun, and some bowlfuls of sour milk, all al 
a reasonable price. \ 

We found a Moor in the camp who had previously known my father 
in Senegal, and who spoke a little French. As soon as he recognized 
him, he cried, “Tiens toi, Picard! ni a pas connaitre moi Amet? (Hark 
ye, Picard, know you not Amet?) We were all struck with astonishment 
at these French words coming from the mouth of a Moor. My father 
recollected having employed, long ago, a young goldsmith at Senegal, 
and discovering the Moor Amet to be the same person, shook him by the 
hand. After that good fellow had been made acquainted with our ship¬ 
wreck, and to what extremities our unfortunate family had been reduced, 
he could not refrain from tears. Amet was not satisfied with deploring 
our hard fate; he was desirous of proving that he was generous and 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 451 

humane, and instantly distributed among us a large quantity of milk and 
water, free of any charge. He also raised for our family a large tent of 
the skins of camels, cattle and sheep, because his religion would not 
allow him to lodge with Christians under the same roof. The place 
appeared very dark, and the obscurity made us uneasy. Amet and our 
conductors lighted a large fire to quiet us ; and at last bidding us good 
night, and retiring to his tent, said: “ Sleep in peace ; the God of the 
Christians is also the God of the Mussulmans.” 

We had resolved to quit this truly hospitable place early in the morning, 
but, during the night, some people, who had probably too much money, 
imagined the Moors had taken us to their camp to plunder us. They 
communicated their fears to others, pretending that the Moors, who 
walked up and down among their flocks, and cried, from time to time, to 
keep away the ferocious beasts, had already given the signal for pursuing 
and murdering us. Instantly a general panic seized all our people, and 
they wished to set off forthwith. My father, although he knew well the 
perfidy of the inhabitants of the desert, endeavored to assure them we 
had nothing to fear, because the Arabs were too much frightened by the 
people of Senegal, who would not fail to avenge us if we were insulted ; 
but nothing could quiet their apprehensions, and we had to take the route 
during the middle of the night. The Moors being soon acquainted with 
our fears, made us all kinds of protestations; and seeing we persisted in 
quitting the camp, offered us asses to carry us as far as the Senegal. My 
father was able to hire only two asses for the whole of our family; and as 
it was numerous, my sister Caroline, my cousin and myself, were obliged 
to crawl along, while my unfortunate father followed in the suit of the 
caravan, which, in truth, went much quicker than we did. 

A short distance from the camp, the brave and compassionate Captain 
Begnere, seeing we still walked, obliged us to accept of the ass he had 
hired for himself, saying he would not ride when young ladies, exhausted 
with fatigue, followed on foot. During the remainder of the night we 
traveled in a manner sufficiently agreeable, mounting alternately the ass 
of Captain Begnere. At five in the morning of the 11th of July we 
regained the sea-shore. Our asses, fatigued with the long journey among 
the sands, ran instantly and lay down among the breakers, in spite of our 
utmost exertions to prevent them. This caused several of us to take a 
bath we wished not: I was myself held under one of the asses in the 
water, and had great difficulty in saving one of my young brothers who 
was floating away. But, in the end, as this incident had no unfortunate 
issue, we laughed, and continued our route, some on foot, and some on 
the capricious asses. Toward ten o’clock, perceiving a ship out at sea, 
we attached a white handkerchief to the muzzle of a gun, waving it in 
the air, and soon had the satisfaction of seeing it was noticed. The ship 
having approached sufficiently near the coast, the Moors who were with 
us threw themselves into the sea and swam to it. It must be said we had 
wrongfully supposed that these people had a design against us, for their 
devotion could not appear greater than when five of them darted through 
the waves to endeavor to communicate between us and the ship ; notwith¬ 
standing, it was still a good quarter of a league distant from where we 
stood on the beach. In about half an hour we saw these good Moors 
returning, making float before them three small barrels. Arrived on 
shore, one of them gave a letter to M. Espiau from M. Parnajon. This 
gentleman was the captain of the Argus brig, sent to seek after the raft,, 
and to give us provisions. This letter announced a small barrel of biscuit,. 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


452 

a tierce of wine, a half tierce of brandy, and a Dutch cheese. We were 
very desirous of testifying our gratitude to the generous commander of 
the brig, but he instantly set out and left us. We staved the barrels 
which held our small stock of provisions, and made a distribution. Each 
of us had a biscuit, about a glass pf wine, a half glass of brandy, and a 
small morsel of cheese. Each drank his allowance of wine at one gulp; 
the brandy was not even despised by the ladies. I however preferred 
quantity to quality, and exchanged my ration of brandy for that of wine. 
To describe our joy, while taking this repast, is impossible. Exposed to 
the fierce rays of a vertical sun; exhausted by a long train of suffering; 
deprived for a long while of the use of any kind of spiritous liquors ; when 
our portions of water, wine and brandy, mingled in our stomachs, we 
became like insane people. Life, which had lately been a great burden, 
now became precious to us. Foreheads, lowering and sulky, began to 
unwrinkle; enemies became most brotherly ; the avaricious endeavored 
to forget their selfishness and cupidity ; the children smiled for the first 
time since our shipwreck; in a word, every one seemed to be born again 
from a condition melancholy and dejected. 

About six in the evening, my father, finding himself extremely fatigued, 
wished to rest himself. We allowed the caravan to move on, while my 
step-mother and myself remained near him, and the rest of the family 
followed with their asses. We all three fell asleep. When we awoke 
we were astonished at not seeing our companions. The sun was sinking 
in the west. We saw several Moors approaching us, mounted on camels ; 
and my father reproached himself for having slept so long. Their ap¬ 
pearance gave us great uneasiness, and we wished much to escape from 
them, but my step-mother and myself felt quite exhausted. The Moors, 
with long beards, having come quite close to us, one of them alighted 
and addressed us in the following words: “ Be comforted, ladies ; under 
the costume of an Arab you see an Englishman, who is desirous of serving 
you. Having heard at Senegal that Frenchmen were thrown ashore on 
these deserts, I thought my presence might be of some service to them, 
as I was acquainted with .several of the princes of this arid country.” 
Recovering from our fright, we rose and expressed to the philanthropic 
Englishman the gratitude we felt. Mr. Carnet, the name of the gen¬ 
erous Briton, told us that our caravan, which he had met, waited for us 
at about the distance of two leagues. He then gave us some biscuit, which 
we ate ; and we then set off together to join our companions. Mr. 
Carnet wished us to mount his camels, but my step-mother and myself, 
being unable to persuade ourselves we could sit securely on their hairy 
haunches, continued to walk on the moist sand, while my father, Mr. 
Carnet, and the Moors who accompanied him, proceeded on the camels. 
At last, having walked about an hour, we rejoined our companions, who 
had found several wells of fresh water. It was resolved to pass the night 
in this place, which seemed less arid than any we saw near us. 

We passed a very good night, and at four in the morning continued 
our route along the shore. At noon, the heat became so violent that even 
the Moors themselves bore it with difficulty. We then determined on 
finding some shade behind the high mounds of sand which appeared in 
the interior; but how were we to reach them? The sands could not be 
hotter. We had been obliged to leave our asses on the shore, for they 
would neither advance nor recede. The greater part of us had neither 
shoes nor hats; notwithstanding, we were obliged to go forward almost 
a long league to find a little shade. The heat reflected by the sands of 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


453 

the desert could be compared to nothing but the mouth of an oven at the 
moment of drawing out the bread; nevertheless, we endured it, but not 
without cursing those who had been the occasion of all our misfortunes. 
Arrived behind the heights for which we searched, we stretched ourselves 
under the mimosa gumtree, (the acacia of the desert;) several broke bran¬ 
ches from the asclepias (swallow-wort) and made themselves a shade. 
But, whether from want of air, or the heat of the ground on which we 
were seated, we were nearly all suffocated. I thought my last hour was 
come. Already my eyes saw nothing but a dark cloud, when a person 
by the name of Borner, who was to have been a smith at Senegal, gave 
me a boot containing some muddy water, which he had the precaution 
to keep. I seized the elastic vase, and hastened to swallow the liquid in 
large draughts. One of my companions equally tormented with thirst, 
envious of the pleasure I seemed to feel, and which I felt effectually, 
seized it in his turn, but it availed him nothing, the water which remained 
was so disgusting that he could not drink it and spilled it on the ground. 
Captain Begnere, who was present, judging by the water which fell, how 
loathsome must that have been which I had drank, offered me some 
crumbs of biscuit which he had kept most carefully in his pocket. I 
chewed that mixture of bread, dust, and tobacco, but I could not swallow 
it, and gave it, all masticated, to one of my younger brothers, who had 
fallen from inanition. 

We were about to quit this furnace, when we saw our generous 
Englishman approaching, who brought us provisions. At this sight I felt my 
strength revive, and ceased to desire death, which I had before called on, 
to release me from my sufferings. Several Moors accompanied Mr. Carnet, 
and every one was loaded. On their arrival we had water, with rice and 
dried fish in abundance. Every one drank his allowance of water, but 
had not ability to eat, although the rice was excellent. We were all 
anxious to return to the sea, that we might bathe ourselves, and the 
caravan put itself on the road to the breakers of Sahara. After an hour’s 
march of great suffering, we regained the shore, as well as our asses, 
which were lying in the water. We rushed among the waves, and after a 
bath of half an hour, we reposed ourselves upon the beach. My cousin 
and I went to stretch ourselves upon a small rising ground, where we 
were shaded with some old clothes which we had with us. My cousin 
was clad in an officer’s uniform, the lace of which strongly attracted the 
eyes of Mr. Carnet’s Moors. Scarcely had we lain down, when one of 
them, thinking we were asleep, came to endeavor to steal it; but seeing 
we were awake, contented himself by looking at us very steadfastly. 

Such is the slight incident which it has pleased MM. Correard and 
Savigny to relate, in their account of the shipwreck of the Medusa, in a 
totally different manner. Believing, doubtless, to make it more interesting 
or amusing, they say that one of the Moors who were our guides, either 
through curiosity or a stronger sentiment, approached Miss Picard while 
asleep, and, after having examined her form, raised the covering which 
concealed her bosom, gazing awhile like one astonished; at length drew 
near, but durst not touch her, then, after having looked a long while, he 
replaced the covering, and returning to his companions related in a 
joyous manner what he had seen. Several Frenchmen having observed 
the proceedings of the Moor, told M. Picard, who, after the obliging offers 
of the officers, decided in clothing the rest of the ladies in the military 
dress, on purpose to prevent their being annoyed by the attentions of the 
inhabitants of the desert. Mighty well! I beg pardon of MM. Correard 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


454 

and Savigny, but there is not one word of truth in all this. How could 
these gentlemen see from the raft, that which passed during the 12th of 
July, on the shores of the Desert of Sahara? And supposing that this 
was reported to them by some one of our caravan, and inserted in their 
work, which contains various inaccuracies, I have to inform them they 
have been deceived. 

About three in the morning, a north-west wind having sprung up, and 
a little refreshed us, our caravan continued its route, our generous English¬ 
man again taking the task of procuring us provisions. At four o’clock 
the sky became overcast, and we heard thunder in the distance. We all 
expected a great tempest, which happily did not take place. Near seven 
we reached the spot where we were to wait for Mr. Carnet, who came to 
us with a bullock he had purchased. Then quitting the shore, we went 
into the interior to seek a place to cook our supper. We fixed our camp 
beside a small wood of acacias, near to which were several wells or 
cisterns of fresh water. Our ox was instantly killed, skinned, cut to 
pieces, and distributed. A large fire was kindled, and each was occupied 
in dressing his meal. At this time I caught a smart fever; notwithstan¬ 
ding, I could not help laughing at seeing every one seated round a large 
fire holding his piece of beef on the point of a bayonet, a saber, or some 
sharp-pointed stick. The flickering of the flames on the different faces, 
sunburned and covered with long beards, rendered more visible by the 
darkness of the night, joined to the noise of the waves and the roaring of 
ferocious beasts which we heard in the distance, presented a spectacle 
at once laughable and imposing. 

While these thoughts were passing across my mind, sleep overpowered 
my senses. Being awaked in the middle of the night, I found my portion 
of beef in the shoes which an old sailor had lent me for walking among 
the thorns. Although it was a little burned, and smelled strongly of the 
dish in which it was contained, I ate a good part of it, and gave the rest 
to my friend the sailor. That seaman, seeing I was ill, offered to exchange 
my meat for some which he had the address to boil in a small tin box. 
f prayed him to give me a little water, if he had any; and he instantly 
went and fetched some in his hat. My thirst was so great that I drank 
it out of this nasty cap without the slightest repugnance. 

A short while after, every one awoke, and again took the route for 
Senegal at an early hour. At nine o’clock we met upon the shore a large 
flock herded by young Moors. These shepherds sold us milk, and one 
of them offered to lend my father an ass for a knife which he had seen 
him take from his pocket. My father having accepted the proposal, the 
Moor left his companions to accompany us as far as the river Senegal, 
from which we were yet two good leagues. 

There happened a circumstance in the forenoon which had like to have 
proved troublesome, but it turned out pleasantly. The steersman of the 
Medusa was sleeping upon the sand, when a Moor found means to steal 
his saber. The Frenchman awoke, and as soon as he saw the thief escaping 
with his booty, rose and pursued him with horrid oaths. The Arab, seeing 
himself followed by a furious European, returned, fell upon his knees, 
and laid at the feet of the steersman the sabre which he had stolen; who, 
in his turn, touched with this mark of confidence or repentance, voluntarily 
gave it to him to keep. During this scene we frequently stopped to see 
how it would terminate, while the caravan continued its route. Suddenly 
we left the shore. Our companions appearing quite transported with joy, 
some of us ran forward, and having gained a slight rising ground, discovered 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 455 

the Senegal at no great distance from them. We hastened our march, 
and for the first time since our shipwreck, a smiling picture presented 
itself to our view. We could not satiate our eyes with gazing on the 
beauties of this place, verdure being so enchanting to the sight, especially 
after having traveled through the desert. Before reaching the river, we 
had to descend a little hill covered with thorny bushes. My ass stumbling, 
threw me into the midst of one, and I tore myself in several places; but 
was easily consoled, when I at length found myself on the banks of a river 
of fresh water. Everyone having quenched his thirst, we stretched 
ourselves under the shade of a small grove, while the beneficent Mr. 
Carnet and two of our officers set forward to Senegal, to announce our 
arrival, and to get us boats. 

At two in the afternoon we saw a small boat beating against the current 
of the stream with oars. It soon reached the spot where we were. Two 
Europeans landed, saluted our caravan, and inquired for my father. One 
of them said he came on the part of MM. Artigue and Laboure, inhabi¬ 
tants of Senegal, to offer assistance to the boats which were getting ready 
for our family; the other added, that he had not waited for us at the 
island of St. Louis, knowing too well what would be our need. They 
placed before us large baskets containing several loaves, cheese, a bottle 
of Madeira, a bottle of filtered water, and dresses for my father. Every 
one, who, during our journey, had taken any interest in our unfortunate 
family, and especially the brave Captain Begnere, had a share of our 
provisions. We experienced a real satisfaction in partaking with them, 
and giving them this small mark of our gratitude. A young aspirant of 
marine, who had refused us a glass of water in the desert, pressed with 
hunger, begged of us some bread; he got it, also a small glass of Madeira. 
It was four o’clock before the boats of the government arrived, and we 
all embarked. Biscuit and wine were found in each of them, and all 
were refreshed. 

That in which our family were was commanded by M. Artigue, captain 
of the port, and one of those who had sent us provisions. My father and 
he embraced as two old friends who had not seen one another for eight 
years, and congratulated themselves that they had been permitted to meet 
once more before they died. 

Immediately the town of St. Louis presented itself to our view. At 
the distance its appearance is fine; but in proportion as it is approached 
the illusion vanishes, and it looks as it really is—dirty, very ill built, poor, 
and filled with straw huts black with smoke. At six in the evening we 
arrived at the port of St. Louis. It would be in vain for me to paint the 
various emotions of my mind at that delicious moment. I am bold to 
say, all the colony, if we except MM. Schmaltz and Lachaumareys, were 
at the port to receive us from our boats. M. Artigue going on shore 
first to acquaint the English governor of our arrival, met him coming to 
us on horseback, followed by our generous conductor, Mr. Carnet, and 
several superior officers. We went on shore carrying our brothers and 
sisters in our arms. My father presented us to the English governor, 
who had alighted; he appeared to be sensibly affected with our misfor¬ 
tunes, the females and children chiefly exciting his commiseration. And 
the native inhabitants and Europeans tenderly shook the hands of the 
unfortunate people; the negro slaves even seemed to deplore our disas¬ 
trous fate. 



SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


456 

The following is the substance, abridged from MM. Correard and 
Savigny, of what took place on the raft during thirteen days before the 
sufferers were taken up by the Argus brig. 

After the boats had disappeared, the consternation became extreme. 
All the horrors of thirst and famine passed before our imaginations ; 
beside, we had to contend with a treacherous element, which already 
covered the half of our bodies. The deep stupor of the soldiers and 
sailors instantly changed to despair. All saw their inevitable destination, 
and expressed by their moans the dark thoughts which brooded in their 
minds. Our words were at first unavailing to quiet their fears, which 
we participated with them, but which a greater strength of mind enabled 
us to dissemble. At last, an unmoved countenance and our proffered 
consolations quieted them by degrees, but could not entirely dissipate 
the terror with which they were seized. 

When tranquillity was a little restored, we began to search about the 
raft for the charts, the compass, and the anchor, which we presumed 
had been placed upon it, after what we had been told at the time of 
quitting the frigate. These things, of the first importance, had not been 
placed upon our machine. Above all, the want of a compass the most 
alarmed us, and we gave vent to our rage and vengeance. M. Correard 
then remembered he had seen one in the hands of one of the principal 
workmen under his command; he spoke to the man, who replied, “Yes, 
yes, I have it with me.” This information transported us with joy, and 
we believed that our safety depended upon this futile resource: it was 
about the size of a crown-piece, and very incorrect. The compass was 
given to the commander of the raft, but an accident deprived us of it for¬ 
ever: it fell, and disappeared between the pieces of wood which formed 
our machine. We had kept it but a few hours, and, after its loss, had 
nothing to guide us but the rising and setting of the sun. 

We had all gone afloat without taking an} food. Hunger beginning 
to be imperiously felt, we mixed our paste of sea-biscuit (which had fallen 
into the sea, and was with difficulty recovered,) with a little wine, and 
distributed it thus prepared. Such was our first meal, and the best we 
had during our stay upon the raft. 

An order, according to our numbers, was established for the distribution 
of our miserable provisions. The ration of wine was fixed at three quar¬ 
ters a day. We will speak no more of the biscuit, it having been entirely 
consumed at the first distribution. The day passed away sufficiently 
tranquil. We talked of the means by which we would save ourselves; 
we spoke of it as a certain circumstance, which reanimated our courage ; 
and we sustained that of the soldiers, by cherishing in them the hope of 
being able, in a short while, to revenge themselves on those who had so 
basely abandoned us. This hope of vengeance, it must be avowed, equally 
animated us all; and we poured out a thousand imprecations against 
those who had left us a prey to so much misery and danger. 

The officer who commanded the raft being unable to move, M. Savigny 
took upon himself the duty of erecting the mast. He caused them to 
cut in two one of the poles of the frigate’s masts, and fixed it with the 
rope which had served to tow us, and of which we made stays and shrouds. 
It was placed on the anterior third of the raft. We put up for a sail the 
main-topgallant, which trimmed very well, but was of very little use, except 
when the wind served from behind; and to keep the raft in this course, 
we were obliged to trim the sail as if the breeze blew athwart us. In the 
evening, our hearts and our prayers, by a feeling natural to the unfortunate, 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


457 

were turned toward Heaven. Surrounded by inevitable dangers, we 
addressed that invisible Being who has established, and who maintains 
the order of the universe. Our vows were fervent, and we experienced 
from our prayers the cheering influence of hope. 

One consoling thought still soothed our imagination. We persuaded 
ourselves that the little division had gone to the isle of Arguin, and that, 
after it had set a part of its people on shore, the rest would return to our 
assistance; we endeavored to impress this idea on our soldiers and sailors, 
which quieted them. The night came without our hope being realized; 
the wind freshened, and the sea was considerably swelled. M. Savigny, 
seconded by some people who still preserved their presence of mind 
amid the disorder, stretched cords across the raft, by which the men 
held, and were better able to resist the swell of the sea; some were even 
obliged to fasten themselves. In the middle of the night the weather 
was very rough; huge waves burst upon us, sometimes overturning us 
with great violence. The cries of the men mingled with the roaring of the 
flood, while the terrible sea raised us at every instant from the raft, and 
threatened to sweep us away. This scene was rendered still more terrible by 
the horrors inspired by the darkness of the night. Suddenly we believed 
we saw fires in the distance, at intervals. We had the precaution to hang 
at the top of the mast, the gunpowder and pistols which we had brought 
from the frigate. We made signals by burning a large quantity of car¬ 
tridges ; we even fired some pistols; but it seems the fire we saw was 
nothing but an error of vision, or, perhaps, nothing more than the spark¬ 
ling of the waves. 

We struggled with death during the whole of the night, holding firmly 
by the ropes, which were made very secure. Tossed by the waves from 
the back to the front, and from the front to the back, and sometimes 
precipitated into the sea; floating between life and death, mourning our 
misfortunes, certain of perishing; we disputed, nevertheless, the remainder 
of our existence with that cruel element which threatened to ingulf us. 
Such was our condition till day-break. At every instant we heard the 
lamentable cries of the soldiers and sailors; they prepared for death, 
bidding farewell to one another, imploring the protection of Heaven, and 
addressing fervent prayers to God. Everyone made vows to him, in 
spite of the certainty of never being able to accomplish them. 

Toward seven in the morning the sea fell a little, the wind blew with 
less fury; but what a scene presented itself to our view! Ten or twelve 
unfortunates, having their legs fixed in the openings between the pieces 
of the raft, had perished by being unable to disengage themselves; several 
others were swept away by the violence of the sea. At the hour of 
repast we took the numbers anew ; we had lost twenty men. We will 
not affirm that this was the exact number ; for we perceived some soldiers 
who, to have more than their share, took rations for two, and even three ; 
we were so huddled together that we found it absolutely impossible to 
prevent this abuse. 

In the midst of these horrors a touching scene of filial piety drew our 
tears. Two young men raised and recognized their father, who had 
fallen, and was lying, insensible, among the feet of the people. They 
believed him, at first, dead, and their despair was expressed in the most 
afflicting manner. It was perceived, however, that he still breathed, and 
every assistance was rendered for his recovery in our power. He slowly 
revived, and was restored to life, and to the prayers of his sons, who 
supported him, closely folded in their arms. While our hearts were 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


458 

softened by this affecting episode in our melancholy adventures, we had 
•soon to witness a dark contrast. Two ship-boys and a baker feared not 
to seek death, and threw themselves into the sea, after having bid fare¬ 
well to their companions in misfortune. Already the minds of our people 
were singularly altered; some believed they saw land; others ships, 
which were coming to save us; and talked aloud of their fallacious 
visions. The day was fine, and the most perfect tranquillity reigned all 
the while on our raft. The evening came, and no boats appeared. 
Despondency began to seize our men, and then a spirit of insubordina¬ 
tion manifested itself in cries of rage. The voice of the officers was 
entirely disregarded. Night fell rapidly in, the sky was obscured by dark 
clouds ; the wind, which, during the whole of the day, had blown rather 
violently, became furious, and swelled the sea, which, in an instant, 
became very rough. The men, from the violence of the sea, were hurried 
from the back to the front; we were obliged to keep to the center, the 
firmest part of the raft, and those who could not get there almost all per¬ 
ished. Before and behind the waves dashed impetuously, and swept 
away the men in spite of all their resistance. At the center the pressure 
was such that some unfortunates were suffocated by the weight of their 
comrades, who fell upon them at every instant. The officers kept by the 
foot of the little mast, and were obliged every moment to call to those 
around them, to go to the one or the other side, to avoid the wave ; for 
the sea coming nearly athwart us, gave our raft nearly a perpendicular 
position, to counteract which they were forced to throw themselves upon 
the side raised by the sea. 

The soldiers and sailors, frightened by the presence of almost inevitable 
danger, doubted not that they had reached their last hour. Firmly 
believing they were lost, they resolved to soothe their last moments by 
drinking until they lost their reason. We had no power to oppose this 
disorder. They seized a cask which was in the center of the raft, made 
a hole in the end of it, and, with small tin cups, took each a pretty large 
quantity ; but they were obliged to cease, for the sea-water rushed into 
the hole they had made. The fumes of the wine failed not to disorder 
their brains, already weakened by the presence of danger and want of 
food. Thus excited, these men became deaf to the voice of reason. 
They wished to involve in one common ruin all their companions in mis¬ 
fortune. They avowedly expressed their intention of freeing themselves 
from their officers, who, they said, wished to oppose their design, and 
then to destroy the raft, by cutting the ropes which united its different 
parts. Immediately after they resolved to put their plans in execution, 
one of them advanced upon the side of the raft with a boarding-ax, and 
began to cut the cords. This was the signal of revolt. We stepped 
forward to prevent these insane mortals, and he who was armed with a 
hatchet, with which he even threatened an officer, fell the first victim: a 
stroke of the saber terminated his existence. 

This man was an Asiatic, and a soldier in a colonial regiment. Of a 
colossal stature, short hair, a nose extremely large, an enormous mouth, 
dark complexion, he made a most hideous appearance. At first he placed 
himself in the middle of the raft, and, at each blow of his fist, knocked 
down everyone who opposed him ; he inspired the greatest terror, and 
none durst approach him. Had there been six such, our destruction 
would have been certain. 

Some men, anxious to prolong their existence, armed and united 
themselves with those who wished to preserve the raft; among this 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


459 

number were some subaltern officers and many passengers. The rebels 
drew their sabers, and those who had none armed themselves with knives. 
They advanced in a determined manner upon us; we stood on our defense ; 
the attack commenced. Animated by despair, one of them aimed a stroke 
at an officer; the rebel instantly fell, pierced with wounds. This firmness 
awed them for an instant, but diminished nothing of their rage. They 
ceased to advance, and withdrew—presenting to us a front bristling with 
sabers and bayonets—to the back part of the raft, to execute their plan. 
One of them feigned to rest himself on the small railings on the sides of 
the raft, and with a knife began cutting the cords. Being told by a servant, 
one of us sprang upon him. A soldier, wishing to defend him, struck at 
the officer with his knife, which only pierced his coat; the officer wheeled 
round, seized his adversary, and threw both him and his comrade into 
the sea. 

There had been as yet but partial affairs: the combat now became 
general. Some one cried to lower the sail; a crowd of infuriated mortals 
threw themselves in an instant upon the halyards, and shrouds, and cut 
them. The fall of the mast almost broke the thigh of a captain of infantry, 
who fell insensible. He was seized by the soldiers, who threw him into 
the sea. We saved him and placed him on a barrel, whence he was 
taken by the rebels, who wished to put out his eyes with a penknife. 
Exasperated by so much brutality, we no longer restrained ourselves, but 
rushed in upon them, and charged them with fury. Sword in hand, we 
traversed the line which the soldiers formed, and many paid with their 
lives the errors of their revolt. Various passengers, during these cruel 
moments, evinced the greatest courage and coolness. 

M. Correard fell into a sort of swoon; but hearing at every instant the 
cries, To arms! with us , comrades; ice are lost! joined with the groans 
and imprecations of the wounded and dying, was soon roused from his 
lethargy. All this horrible tumult speedily made him comprehend how 
necessary it was to be upon his guard. Armed with his saber, he gathered 
together some of his workmen on the front of the raft, and there charged 
them to hurt no one, unless they were attacked. He almost always 
remained with them; and several times they had to defend themselves 
against the rebels, who, swimming round to the point of the raft, placed 
M. Correard and his little troop between two dangers, and made their 
position very difficult to defend. At every instant he was opposed to men 
armed with knives, sabers, and bayonets. Many had carabines, which 
they wielded as clubs. Every effort was made to stop them, by holding 
them off at the point of their swords; which, in spite of the repugnance 
they experienced in fighting with their wretched countrymen, they were 
compelled to use without mercy. Many of the mutineers attacked with 
fury, and they were obliged to repel them in the same manner. Some 
of the laborers received severe wounds in this action. Their commander 
could show a great number received in the different campaigns. At last 
their united efforts prevailed in dispersing this mass who had attacked 
them with such fury. 

During this combat, M. Correard was told by one of his workmen who 
remained faithful, that one of their comrades, named Dominique, had 
<rone over to the rebels, and that they had seized and thrown him into the 
sea. Immediately forgetting the fault and treason of this man, he threw 
himself in at the place whence the voice of the wretch was heard calling 
for assistance, seized him by the hair, and had the good fortune to restore 
him on board. Dominique had got several saber wounds in a charge, 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


460 

one of which had laid open his head. In spite of the darkness, we found 
out the wound, which seemed very large. One of the workmen gave his 
handkerchief to bind and stop the blood. Our care recovered the wretch; 
but when he had collected strength, the ungrateful Dominique, forgetting 
at once his duty and the signal service which we had rendered him, went 
and rejoined the rebels. So much baseness and insanity did not go unre¬ 
venged ; and soon after he found, in a fresh assault, that death from which 
he was not worthy to be saved, but which he might, in all probability, have 
avoided, if, true to honor and gratitude, he had remained among us. 

Just at the moment we finished dressing the wounds of Dominique, 
another voice was heard. It was that of the unfortunate female who was 
with us on the raft, and whom the infuriated beings had thrown into the 
sea, as well as her husband, who had defended her with courage. M. 
Correard, in despair at seeing two unfortunates perish, whose pitiful cries, 
especially the woman’s, pierced his heart, seized a large rope, which he 
found on the front of the raft, which he fastened round his middle, and 
throwing himself a second time into the sea, was again so fortunate as to 

save the woman, who invoked, with all her might, the assistance of our 

Lady of Land. Her husband was rescued at the same time by the head 
workman, Lavilette.^ We laid these unfortunates upon the dead bodies, 
supporting their backs with a barrel. In a short while they recovered their 
senses. The first thing the woman did was to acquaint herself with the 

name of the person who saved her, and to express to him her liveliest 

gratitude. Finding, doubtless, that her words but ill expressed her feel¬ 
ings, she recollected she had in her pocket a little snuff, and instantly offered 
it to him—it was all she possessed. Touched with the gift, but unable to 
use it, M. Correard gave it to a poor sailor, which served him for three or 
four days. But it is impossible for us to describe a still more affecting 
scene—the joy this unfortunate couple testified, when they had sufficiently 
recovered their senses, at finding they were both saved. 

The rebels being repulsed, as it has been stated above, left us a little 
repose. The man and wife, who had been but a little before stabbed 
with swords and bayonets, and thrown both together into a stormy sea, 
could scarcely credit their senses when they found themselves in one 
another’s arms. The woman was a native of the Upper Alps, which 
place she had left twenty-four years before, and during which time she 
had followed the French armies in the campaigns in Italy, and other places, 
as a sutler. “Therefore preserve my life,” said she to M. Correard, 
“you see I am a useful woman. Ah! if you knew how often I had ven¬ 
tured upon the field of battle, and braved death to carry assistance to our 
gallant men! Whether they had money or not, I always let them have 
my goods. Sometimes a battle would deprive me of my poor debtors; 
but after the victory, others would pay me double or triple for what they 
had consumed before the engagement. Thus I came in for a share of 
their victories.” Unfortunate woman! she little knew what a horrible 
fate awaited her among us! They felt, they expressed so vividly that 
happiness which they, alas! so shortly enjoyed, that it would have drawn 
tears from the most obdurate heart. But in that horrible moment when 
we scarcely breathed from the most furious attack—when we were obliged 
to be continually on our guard, not only against the violence of the men, 
but a most boisterous sea, few among us had time to attend to scenes of 
conjugal affection. 

After this second check, the rage of the soldiers was suddenly appeased, 
and gave place to the most abject cowardice. Several threw themselves 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 4.QI 

at our feet and implored our pardon, which was instantly granted. 
Thinking that order was re-established, we returned to our station on the 
center of the raft, only taking the precaution of keeping our arms. We, 
however, had soon to prove the impossibility of counting on the perma¬ 
nence of any honest sentiment in the hearts of these beings. It was nearly 
midnight; and, after an hour of apparent tranquillity, the soldiers rose 
afresh. Their mind was entirely gone: they ran upon us in despair, with 
knives and sabers in their hands. As they yet had all their physical 
strength, and beside were armed, we were obliged again to stand on our 
defense. Their revolt became still more dangerous, as, in their delirium, 
they were entirely deaf to the voice of reason. They attacked us, we 
charged them in our turn, and immediately the raft was strewed with 
their dead bodies. Those of our adversaries who had no weapons, endea¬ 
vored to tear us with their sharp teeth. Many of us were cruelly bitten. 
M. Savigny was torn on the legs and shoulder; he also received a wound 
on the right arm, which deprived him of the use of his fourth and little 
finger for a long while. Many others were wounded ; and many cuts 
were found in our clothes, from knives and sabers. Some short while 
after, in a fresh attack of the rebels, Sub-lieutenant Lozach fell into their 
hands. In their delirium they had taken him for Lieutenant Danglas, of 
whom we have formerly spoken, and who had abandoned the raft at the 
moment when we were quitting the frigate. The troop, to a man, eagerly 
sought this officer, who had seen little service, and whom they reproached 
for having used them ill during the time they garrisoned the Isle of Rhe. 
We believed this officer lost, but hearing his voice, we soon found it still 
possible to save him. Immediately a number of our men, formed them¬ 
selves into small platoons, and rushed upon the insurgents with great 
impetuosity, overturning everyone in their way, and retook M. Lozach, 
and placed him on the center of the raft. Every moment the soldiers 
demanded he should be delivered to them, designating him always by the 
name of Danglas. We endeavored to make them comprehend their mis¬ 
take, and told them that they themselves had seen the person for whom 
they sought, return on board the frigate. They were insensible to every¬ 
thing we said; everything before them was Danglas; they saw him per¬ 
petually, and furiously and unceasingly demanded his head. It was only 
by force of arms we succeeded in repressing their rage and quieting their 
cries of death. 

We had also to tremble for the life of M. Coudin. Wounded and 
fatigued by the attacks which he had sustained with us, and in which 
he had shown a courage superior to everything, he was resting himself 
on a barrel, holding in his arms a young sailor boy of twelve years of age, 
to whom he had attached himself. The mutineers seized him, with his 
barrel, and threw him into the sea with the boy, whom he still held fast. 
In spite of his burden, he had the presence of mind to lay hold of the 
raft, and to save himself from extreme peril. We cannot yet comprehend 
how a handful of men should have been able to resist such a number so 
monstrously insane. We are sure we were not more than twenty to 
combat all these madmen. Let it not, however, be imagined that in the 
midst of all these dangers we had preserved our reason entire. Fear, 
anxiety, and the most cruel privations, had greatly changed our intellectual 
faculties. But being somewhat less insane than the unfortunate soldiers, 
we energetically opposed their determination of cutting the cords of the 
raft. Permit us now to make some observations concerning the different 
sensations with which we were affected. During the first day, M. Griffin 


462 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


entirely lost his senses. He threw himself into the sea, but M. Savigny 
saved him with his own hands. His words were vague and unconnected. 
A second time he threw himself in, but, by a sort of instinct, kept hold of 
the cross pieces of the raft, and was again saved. 

The following is what M. Savigny experienced in the beginning of the 
night. His eyes closed in spite of himself, and he felt a general drow¬ 
siness. In this condition the most delightful visions flitted across his 
imagination. He saw around him a country covered with the most beau¬ 
tiful plantations, and found himself in the midst of objects delightful to 
his senses. Nevertheless, he reasoned concerning his condition, and felt 
that courage alone could withdraw him from this species of non-existence. 
He demanded some wine from the master gunner, who got it for him, 
and he recovered a little from this state of stupor. If the unfortunates 
who were assailed with these primary symptoms had not strength to with¬ 
stand them, their death was certain. Some became furious; others threw 
themselves into the sea, bidding farewell to their comrades with the 
utmost coolness. Some said—“Fear nothing; I am going to get you 
assistance, and will return in a short while.” In the midst of this general 
madness some wretches were seen rushing upon their companions, sword 
in hand, demanding a wing of a chicken and some bread , to appease the 
hunger which consumed them; others asked for their hammocks, to go, 
they said, between the decks of the f rigate to take a little repose. Many 
believed they were still on the decks of the Medusa, surrounded by 
the same objects they there saw daily. Some saw ships, and called 
to them for assistance, or a fine harbor, in the distance of which 
was an elegant city. M. Correard thought he was traveling through the 
beautiful fields of Italy. An officer said to him—“1 recollect we have 
been abandoned by the boats; but fear nothing. I am going to write to 
the governor, and in a few hours we shall be saved.” M. Correard 
replied in the same tone, and as if he had been in hidferdinary condition 
—“Have you a pigeon to carry your orders with such celerity?” The 
cries and the confusion soon aroused us from this languor; but when 
tranquillity was somewhat restored, we again fell into the same drowsy 
condition. On the morrow we felt as if we had awoke from a painful 
dream, and asked our companions if, during their sleep, they had not 
seen combats and heard cries of despair. Some replied that the same 
visions had continually tormented them, and that they were exhausted 
with fatigue. Everyone beleived he was deceived by the illusions of a 
horrible dream. 

After these different combats, overcome with toil, with want of food 
and sleep, we laid ourselves down and reposed till the morrow dawned 
and showed us the horror of the scene. A great number in their delirum 
had thrown themselves into the sea. We found that sixty or sixty-five 
had perished during the night. A fourth part at least, we supposed, had 
drowned themselves in despair. We only lost two of our number, neither 
of whom were officers. The deepest dejection was painted on every face ; 
each, having recovered himself, could now feel the horrors of his situation ; 
and some of us, shedding tears of despair, bitterly deplored the rigor of 
our fate. 

A new misfortune was now revealed to us. During the tumult, the 
rebels had thrown into the sea two barrels of wine, and the only two casks 
of water which we had upon the raft. The casks of wine had been 
consumed the day before, and only one was left. We were more than 
sixty in number, and we were obliged to put ourselves on half-rations 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 463 

At, break of day the sea calmed, which permitted us again to erect our 
mast. When it was replaced, we made a distribution of wine. The 
unhappy soldiers murmured and blamed us for privations which we 
equally endured with them. They fell exhausted. We had taken nothing 
for forty-eight hours, and we had been obliged to struggle continually 
against a strong sea. We could, like them, hardly support ourselves; 
courage alone made us still act. We resolved to employ every possible 
means to catch fish, and collecting all the hooks and eyes from the soldiers, 
made fish-hooks of them'; but all was of no avail. The currents carried 
our lines under the raft, where they got entangled. We bent a bayonet 
to catch sharks ; one bit at it, and straightened it, and we abandoned our 
project. Something was absolutely necessary to sustain our miserable 
existence, and we tremble with horror at being obliged to tell that of 
which we made use. We feel our pen fall from our hands; a mortal 
cold congeals all our members, and our hair bristles erect on our foreheads. 
Reader! we implore you, feel not indignant toward men already loaded 
with misery. Pity their condition, and shed a tear of sorrow for their 
deplorable fate. 

The wretches whom death had spared during the disastrous night we 
have described, seized upon the dead bodies with which the raft was 
covered, cutting them up by slices, which some even instantly devoured. 
Many nevertheless refrained. Almost all the officers were of this number. 
Seeing that this monstrous food had revived the strength of those who 
had used it, it was proposed to dry it to make it a little more palatable. 
Those who had firmness to abstain from it, took an additional quantity of 
wine. We endeavored to eat shoulder-belts and cartouch-boxes, and 
contrived to swallow some small bits of them. Some ate linen; others, 
the leathers of the hats, on which was a little grease, or rather dirt. We 
had recourse to many expedients to prolong our miserable existence, to 
recount which would only disgust the heart of humanity. 

The day was calm and beautiful. A ray of hope beamed for a moment 
to quiet our agitation. We still expected to see the boats, or some ships, 
and addressed our prayers to the Eternal, on whom we placed our trust. 
The half of our men were extremely feeble, and bore upon their faces 
the stamp of approaching dissolution. The evening arrived, and we found 
no help. The darkness of the third night augmented our fears, but the 
wind was still, and the sea less agitated. The sun of the fourth morning 
since our departure shone upon our disaster, and showed us ten or twelve 
of our companions stretched lifeless upon the raft. This sight struck us 
most forcibly, as it told us we would be soon extended in the same man¬ 
ner in the same place. We gave their bodies to the sea for a grave, 
reserving only one to feed those who, but the day before, had held his 
trembling hands, and sworn to him eternal friendship. This day was 
beautiful. Our souls, anxious for more delightful sensations, were in 
harmony with the aspect of the heavens, and got again a new ray of hope. 
Toward four in the afternoon an unlooked for event happened, which 
gave us some consolation. A shoal of flying-fish passed under our raft, 
and as there was an infinite number of openings between the pieces that 
composed it, the fish were entangled in great quantities. We threw our¬ 
selves upon them, and captured a considerable number. We took about 
two hundred and put them in an empty barrel; we opened them as we 
caught them, and took out what is called their milt. This food seemed 
delicious; but one man would have required a thousand. Our first emo¬ 
tion was to give God renewed thanks for this unhoped for favor. An 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


464 

ounce of gunpowder having been found in the morning, was dried 
in the sun during the day, which was very fine; a steel, gun-flints, and 
tinder made also a part of the same parcel. After a good deal of difficulty 
we set fire to some fragments of dry linen. We made a large opening 
in the side of an empty cask, and placed at the bottom of it several wet 
things, and upon this kind of scaffolding we set our fire; all of which we 
placed on a barrel, that the sea might not extinguish it. We cooked 
some fish and ate them with extreme avidity; but our hunger was such, 
and our portion so small, that we added to it some of the sacrilegious 
viands, which the cooking rendered less revolting. This some of the 
officers touched for the first time. From this day we continued to eat it; 
but we could no longer dress it, the means of making a fire having been 
entirely lost; the barrel having caught fire, we extinguished it, without 
being able to preserve anything to rekindle it on the morrow. The 
powder and tinder were entirely done. This meal gave us all additional 
strength to support our fatigues. The night was tolerable, and would 
have been happy, had it not been signalized by a new massacre. 

Some Spaniards, Italians, and negroes, had formed a plot to throw us 
all into the sea. The negroes had told them that they were very near 
the shore, and that, when there, they would enable them to traverse Africa 
without danger. We had to take to our arms again; the sailors, who had 
remained faithful to us, pointing out to us the conspirators. The first 
signal for battle was given by a Spaniard, who, placing himself behind 
the mast, holding fast by it, made the sign of the cross with one hand, 
invoking the name of God, and with the other held a knife. The sailors 
seized him and threw him into the sea. An Italian, servant to an officer 
of the troops, who was in the plot, seeing all was discovered, armed him¬ 
self with the only boarding-ax left on the raft, made his retreat to the 
front, enveloped himself in a piece of drapery he wore across his breast, 
and, of his own accord, threw himself into the sea. The rebels rushed 
forward to avenge their comrades; a terrible conflict again commenced ; 
both sides fought with desperate fury; and soon the fatal raft was strewed 
with dead bodies and blood, which should have been shed by other hands, 
and in another cause. In this tumult we heard them again demanding, 
with horrid rage, the head of Lieutenant Danglas! In this assault the 
unfortunate sutler was again thrown into the sea. M. Coudin, assisted 
by some workmen, saved her, to prolong for awhile her torments and 
her existence. 

In this terrible night Lavillette failed not to give proofs of the rarest 
intrepidity. It was to him and some of those who have survived the sequel 
of our misfortunes, that we owed our safety. At last, after unheard of 
efforts, the rebels were once more repulsed, and quiet restored. Having 
escaped this new danger, we endeavored to get some repose. The day 
at length dawned upon us for the fifth time. We were now no more 
than thirty in number. We had lost four or five of our faithful sailors, 
and those who survived were in the most deplorable condition. The 
sea-water had almost entirely excoriated the skin of our lower extremities; 
we were covered with contusions or wounds, which, irritated by the salt 
water, extorted from us the most piercing cries. About twenty of us 
only were capable of standing upright or walking. Almost all our fish 
were exhausted; we had but four days supply of wine: in four days, said 
we, nothing will be left, and death will be inevitable. Thus came the 
seventh day of our abandonment. In the course of the day two soldiers 
had glided behind the only barrel of wine that was left, piercing it, and 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


465 

were drinking by means of a reed. We had sworn that those who used 
such means should be punished with death; which law was instantly put 
in execution, and the two transgressors were thrown into the sea. 

The same day saw the close of the life of a child named Leon, aged 
twelve years. He died like a lamp which ceases to burn for want of 
aliment. All spoke in favor of this young and amiable creature, who 
merited a better fate. His angelic form, his musical voice, the interest 
of an age so tender, increased still more by the courage he had shown 
and the services he had performed, for he had already made, in the pre¬ 
ceding year, a campaign in the East Indies, inspired us all with the greatest 
pity for this young victim, devoted to so horrible and premature a death. 
Our old soldiers and all our people in general did everything they could 
to prolong his existence, but all was in vain. Neither the wine which 
they gave him without regret, nor all the means they employed, could 
arrest his melancholy doom, and he expired in the arms of M. Coudin, 
who had not ceased to give him the most unwearied attention. While 
he had strength to move he ran incessantly from one side to the other, 
loudly calling for his mother, for water and food. He trod indiscrimi¬ 
nately on the feet and legs of his companions in misfortune, who, in their 
turn, uttered sorrowful cries, but these were very rarely accompanied 
with menaces; they pardoned all which the poor boy had made them 
suffer. He was not in his senses, consequently could not be expected 
to behave as if he had the use of his reason. 

There now remained but twenty-seven of us. Fifteen of that number 
seemed able to live yet some days; the rest, covered with large wounds, 
had almost entirely lost the use of their reason. They still, however, 
shared in the distributions, and would, before they died, consume thirty 
or forty bottles of wine, which to us were inestimable. We deliberated, 
that by putting the sick on half allowance was but putting them to death 
by halves; but after a council, at which presided the most dreadful despair, 
it was decided they should be thrown into the sea. This means, however 
repugnant, however horrible it appeared to us, procured the survivors 
six days’ wine. But after the decision was made, who durst execute it? 
The habit of seeing death ready to devour us; the certainty of our infal¬ 
lible destruction without this monstrous expedient; all, in short, had har¬ 
dened our hearts to every feeling but that of self-preservation. Three 
sailors and a soldier took charge of this cruel business. We looked aside 
and shed tears of blood at the fate of these unfortunates. Among them 
were the wretched sutler and her husband. Both had been grievously 
wounded in the different combats. The woman had a thigh broken 
between the beams of the raft, and a stroke of a saber had made a deep 
wound in the head of her husband. Everything announced their ap¬ 
proaching end. We consoled ourselves with the belief that our cruel 
resolution shortened but a brief space the term of their existence. Ye 
who shudder at the cry of outraged humanity, recollect that it was other 
men, fellow-countrymen, comrades, who had placed us in this awful 
situation! 

This horrible expedient saved the fifteen who remained: for when we 
were found by the Argus brig, we had very little wine left, and it was 
the sixth day after the cruel sacrifice we have described. The victims, 
we repeat, had not more than forty-eight hours to live, and by keeping 
them on the raft we would have been absolutely destitute of the means 
of existence two days before we were found. Weak as we were, we 
considered it as a certain thing, that it would have been impossible for 
30 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


466 

us to have lived only twenty-four hours more, without taking some food. 
After this catastrophe we threw our arms into the sea ; they inspired us 
with a horror we could not overcome. We only kept one saber, in case 
we had to cut some cordage or some pieces of wood. 

A new event, for everything was an event to wretches to whom the 
world was reduced to the narrow space of a few feet, and for whom the 
winds and waves contended in their fury as they floated above the abyss ; 
an event happened which diverted our minds from the horrors of our 
situation. All on a sudden a white butterfly, of a species common in 
France, came fluttering above our heads and settled on our sail. The 
first thought this little creature suggested was that it was the harbinger 
of approaching land, and we clung to the hope with a delirium of joy. 
It was the ninth day we had been upon the raft; the torments of hunger 
consumed our entrails ; and the soldiers and sailors already devoured 
with haggard eyes this wretched prey, and seemed to dispute about it. 
Others looking upon it as a messenger from Heaven, declared that they 
took it under their protection, and would suffer none to do it harm. It 
was certain we could not be far from land, for the butterflies continued to 
come on the following days and flutter about our sail. We had also, on 
the same day. another indication, not less positive, by a Goeland which 
flew around our raft. This second visitor left us not a doubt that we 
were fast approaching the African soil, and we persuaded ourselves 
we would be speedily thrown upon the coast by the force of the currents. 

This same day a new care employed us. Seeing we were reduced to 
so small a number, we collected all the little strength we had left, detached 
some planks on the front of the raft, and, with some pretty long pieces 
of wood, raised on the center a kind of platform, on which we reposed. 
All the effects we could collect were placed upon it, and rendered to 
make it less hard; which also prevented the sea from passing with such 
facility through the spaces between the different planks; but the waves 
came across, and sometimes covered us completely. 

On this new theater we resolved to meet death in a manner becoming 
Frenchmen, and with perfect resignation. Our time was almost wholly 
spent in speaking of our happy country. All our wishes, our last prayers, 
were for the prosperity of France. Thus passed the last days of our 
abode upon the raft. Soon after our abandonment, we bore with com¬ 
parative ease the immersions during the nights, which are very cold in 
these countries; but latterly, every time the waves washed over us 
we felt a most painful sensation, and we uttered plaintive cries. We 
employed every means to avoid it. Some supported their heads on pieces 
of wood, and made, with what they could find, a sort of little parapet to 
screen them from the force of the waves; others sheltered themselves 
behind two empty casks. But these means were very insufficient; it was 
only when the sea was calm that it did not break over us. 

An ardent thirst, redoubled in the day by the beams of a burning sun, 
consumed us. An officer of the army found by chance a small lemon, 
and it may be easily imagined how valuable such a fruit would be to 
him. His comrades, in spite of the most urgent entreaties, could not get 
a bit of it from him. Signs of rage were already manifested, and had he 
not partly listened to the solicitations of those around him, they would 
have taken it by force, and he would have perished the victim of his own 
selfishness. We also disputed about thirty cloves of garlic which were 
found in the bottom of a sack. These disputes were, for the most part, 
accompanied with violent menaces, and if they had been prolonged, we 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


467 


might have come to the last extremities. Three days passed in inex¬ 
pressible anguish. So much did we despise life, that many of us feared 
not to bathe in sight of the sharks which surrounded our raft; others 
placed themselves naked upon the front of our machine, which was 
under water. These expedients diminished a little the ardor of our 
thirst. On the 16th, reckoning we were very near the land, eight of 
the most determined among us resolved to endeavor to gain the coast. 
Accordingly a second raft, of smaller dimensions, was formed for trans¬ 
porting them thither; but it was found insufficient, and they at length 
determined to await death in their present situation. Meanwhile night 
came on, and its somber vail revived in our minds the most afflicting 
thoughts. We were certain there were not above a dozen or fifteen 
bottles of wine in our barrel. We began to have an invincible disgust 
at the flesh which had till then scarcely supported us; and we may say 
that the sight of it inspired us with feelings of horror, doubtless pro¬ 
duced by the idea of approaching destruction. On the morning of the 
17th the sun appeared free from clouds. After having addressed our 
prayers to the Eternal, we divided among us a part of our wine. Each 
with delight was taking his small portion, when a captain of infantry, 
casting his eyes on the horizon, perceived a ship, and announced it to 
us by an exclamation of joy. We knew it to be a brig, but it was at a 
great distance; we could only distinguish the masts. The sight of this 
vessel revived in us emotions difficult to describe. Each believed his 
deliverance sure, and we gave a thousand thanks to God. Fears, how¬ 
ever, mingled with our hopes. We straightened some hoops of casks, 
to the ends of which we fixed handkerchiefs of different colors. A 
man, with our united assistance, mounted to the top of the mast, and 
waved these little flags. For more than half an hour we were tossed 
between hope and fear. Some thought the vessel grew larger, and 
others were convinced its course was from us. These last were the 
only ones whose eyes were not blinded by hope, for the ship disappeared. 

From this delirium of joy we passed to that of despondency and 
sorrow. We envied the fate of those whom we had seen perish at our 
sides; and we said to ourselves, “ When we shall be in want of every¬ 
thing, and when our strength begins to forsake us, we will wrap our¬ 
selves up as well as we can, and will stretch ourselves on this platform, 
the witness of the most cruel sufferings, and there await death with 
resignation.” At length, to calm our despair, we sought for consolation 
in the arms of sleep. The day before we had been scorched by the 
beams of a burning sun; to-day* to avoid the fierceness of his rays, we 
made a tent with the mainsail of the frigate. As soon as it was finished, 
we laid ourselves under it; thus all that was passing without was hid 
from our eyes. We proposed then to write upon a plank an abridgment 
of our adventures, and to add our names at the bottom of the recital, 
and fix it to the upper part of our mast, in the hope that it would reach 
the government and our families. 

After having passed two hours, a prey to the most cruel reflections, 
the master gunner of the frigate, wishing to go to the front of the raft, 
went out from below the tent. Scarcely had he put out his head when 
he turned to us, uttering a piercing cry. Joy was painted upon his 
face; his hands were stretched toward the sea; he breathed with diffi¬ 
culty. All he was able to say was: Saved! see the brig upon us! and 
in fact it was not more than half a league distant, having every sail set,, 
and steering right upon us. We rushed from our tent; even those whom 


SHIPWRECK OF THE FRENCH FRIGATE MEDUSA. 


468 

enormous wounds in their inferior extremities had confined for many 
days, dragged themselves to the back of the raft, to enjoy a sight of the 
ship which had come to save us from certain death. We embraced 
one another with a transport which looked much like madness, and tears 
of joy trickled down our cheeks, withered by the most cruel privations. 
Each seized handkerchiefs, or some pieces of linen, to make signals to 
the brig, which was rapidly approaching us. Some fell on their knees 
and fervently returned thanks to Providence for this miraculous pre¬ 
servation of their lives. Our joy redoubled when we saw at the top of 
the foremast a large white flag, and we cried, “It is then to Frenchmen 
we will owe our deliverance.” We instantly recognized the brig to be 
the Argus; it was then about two gunshots from us. We were terribly 
impatient to see her reef her sails, which at last she did, and fresh cries 
of joy arose from our raft. The Argus came and lay to on our starboard, 
about a half pistol shot from us. The crew, ranged upon the deck and 
on the shrouds, announced to us, by the waving of their hands and hats, 
the pleasure they felt at coming to the assistance of their unfortunate 
countrymen. In a short time we were all transported on board the brig, 
where we found the lieutenant of the frigate, and some others who 
had been wrecked with us. Compassion was painted on every face, 
and pity drew tears from every eye which beheld us. We found some 
excellent broth on board the brig, which they had prepared, and when 
they had perceived us, they added to it some wine, and thus restored 
our nearly exhausted strength. We had scarcely escaped, when some 
became again delirious. An officer of infantry wished to throw himself 
into the sea to look for his pocket-book, and would have done it had he 
not been prevented; others were seized in a manner not less frenzied. 

The commander and officers of the brig watched over us, and kindly 
anticipated our wants. They snatched us from death by saving us from 
the raft; their unremitted care revived within us the spark of life. The 
surgeon of the ship, M. Renaud, distinguished himself for his indefati¬ 
gable zeal. He was obliged to spend the whole of the day in dressing 
our wounds; and during the two days we were on board the brig, he 
bestowed on us all the aid of his art, with an attention and gentleness 
which merit our eternal gratitude. In truth, it was time we should find 
an end of our sufferings; they had lasted thirteen days in the most cruel 
manner. The strongest among us might have lived forty-eight hours or 
so longer. M. Correard felt that he must die in the course of the day; 
he had, however, a presentiment that we would be saved. He said that 
a series of events so unheard of would not be buried in oblivion; that 
Providence would at least preserve some of us to tell the world the 
melancholy story of our misfortunes. 

Such is the faithful history of those who were left upon the memorable 
raft. Of one hundred and fifty, fifteen only were saved. Five of that 
number never recovered of their fatigue, and died at St. Louis. Those 
who yet live are covered with scars; and the cruel sufferings to which 
they have been exposed, have materially shaken their constitutions. 


THE STORY 


OP 


ROBERT DRURY, 

A SAILOR BOY, WHO WAS SHIPWRECKED, CAPTURED AND HELD IN SLAVERY FOR 
FIFTEEN YEARS, BY 


THE SAVAGES OF MADAGASCAR. 


I was born on the 24th of July, 1687, in Crutched Friars, London, 
where my father then lived ; but soon after he removed to the Old Jewry, 
near Cheapside, where he kept, for several years afterward, that noted 
house called the King’s Head, a famous beef steak house in its day, and 
a great resort of merchants and other gentlemen. Reared in London, 
and often about the Thames, I acquired an unconquerable desire to go to 
sea ; and though my parents did everything in their power to give me a 
good education, and promised to push me on in the world, if I would 
abandon this notion, I persevered in my obstinate resolution. Not all the 
entreaties of my poor dear mother, though she once begged me on her 
knees, nor the persuasions of my father, or any other friends, could make 
the least impression on me. 

When they found their endeavors were ineffectual, they formed a new 
scheme to wean me from a sea-life. This was to procure me a short voy¬ 
age, hoping that the many dangers and hardships to which I should be 
exposed, and should see others undergo, would deter me from persever¬ 
ing in that course of life. 

As willful persons never want woe, such was my obstinacy, that nothing 
would content me but what contributed to my ruin; and Providence justly 
frustrated all my hopes, by indulging me in the choice I had so foolishly 
and ungratefully made, in direct opposition to my duty to my affectionate 
parents. When it was proposed that I should take a short voyage, I in¬ 
sisted that nothing but a voyage to the East Indies would please me ; for 
no other reason that I can think of, than that I had a cousin in the East 
India Company’s service at Calcutta. It was accordingly resolved to 
gratify this whim. My father, however, showed a due concern for my com¬ 
fort and welfare, by the manner in which he fitted me out. He supplied 
me plentifully with provisions, clothes, and other necessaries for the voy¬ 
age ; beside which I had a cargo to trade on, to the value of a hundred 
pounds, which was a large trust for a boy of not yet fourteen years of age. 
I went as a passenger, well recommended to Captain William Younge, 
with whom my passage, and the freight of my cargo, were agreed for, and 
we soon after embarked. 

The vessel Captain Younge commanded was the Degrave, of 700 tons 
burden, and carrying 52 guns. She was a regular India trader, and, 
like all others of her class, required to be well armed for the sake of 
defense. The parting with my mother was not without pain ; but I was 

(469) 



THE STORY OF ROBERT DRURY. 


470 

a giddy boy, and soon recovered my spirits. The ship dropped pleasantly 
down the Thames to the Nore, and passed through the Downs on Feb¬ 
ruary 19, 1701. Nothing remarkable occurred during the outward-bound 
voyage. In our route we stopped a week at the Canaries, and arrived 
at Fort George, in the East Indies, in three months and twenty days from 
the Downs. Two days after we weighed anchor, and sailed to Mastapatan, 
where we stayed a month, and then proceeded to complete our voyage 
to Bengal. 

On arriving at Calcutta, my cousin came on board, and offered to assist 
in disposing of my goods; but the captain discovering that he was far 
from being trustworthy, took charge of my cargo, and sold the whole to 
good advantage, taking in exchange the commodities of the country. 
While lying at this port, we lost many of our crew by fever; and, worst 
of all, at length Captain Younge also died, leaving his son, who was ? econd 
mate, to take charge of the ship. This was a serious disaster, for our new 
commander was an inexperienced young man, not fit for so important 
a trust. The number of deaths on board, caused us to wait a considerable 
time to recruit the ship’s company. During this period of inaction, I 
learned to swim, and frequently amused myself by swimming in the 
Hoogly. I became so exceedingly expert in this art, that I could swim 
several miles up or down the river. 

Our business being finished at Bengal, and our crew greatly renewed, 
we sailed on our homeward voyage, having on board 120 hands, some 
of them Lascars, beside two women and myself, and a few other passen¬ 
gers. As we were going down the river, our ship ran aground, and stuck 
fast; but there being a very strong tide, it turned her round, and we got 
off the next high water without any damage, as we imagined. This 
accident proved the cause of the sad misfortune, which soon after over¬ 
took us. On getting out to sea. the vessel was found to have sprung a 
leak, and we were obliged to keep two chain-pumps continually at work. 
We were two months in this distressing condition, every man taking his 
turn at the severe labor of pumping. It was a joyful sight to see the 
island of Mauritius rising on the horizon, and we were all still more 
delighted to arrive at the island, which lies about 600 miles to the east 
of Madagascar. This fine island was inhabited by the Dutch, who treated 
us with great kindness and humanity, assisting us with whatever was in 
their power. We made a tent on shore, in which we stowed great part 
of our cargo, in order to lighten the ship, and discover the leak. In this 
search, which could not have been properly performed, the sailors were 
unsuccessful, and the captain gave it up as hopeless. A month was 
spent on the island. Having taken on board plenty of good fish, turtle, 
and goats, with some beef, we departed, shaping our course directly for 
the Cape of Good Hope. 

The infatuation of going to sea with a leaky vessel, is more than I can 
possibly account for. Whatever motive urged the captain to do such an 
act of folly, he and all of us were severely punished for it. When we 
had been gone a few days from the Mauritius, the leak gained on us more 
and more, and it was with great difficulty the ship could be kept above 
water. Young as I was, I saw that we were on the verge of destruction, 
and now repented in tears, the madness of putting myself in the way of 
such a catastrophe. It was dreadful to see the exertions which the men 
made to keep the vessel from sinking. They worked incessantly at the 
pumps; but the water came in as quickly as it was pumped and bailed 
out, and gained gradually, in spite of every effort. All were spent with 


AMONG THE BREAKERS. 


471 


fatigue, and despair settled on every countenance. According to our 
reckoning, we were a hundred leagues southward of Madagascar; and to 
lighten the ship, several guns, and much of the heavy goods, were heaved 
overboard. The captain was for continuing our course to the Cape, GOO 
leagues distant, but the ship’s company in general opposed it, being of 
opinion that they could not keep her above water long enough, and were 
in favor of running to Madagascar, which was the nearest land. 

The peril we were in did not admit of delay, and, by urgent persuasion, 
the captain ordered ’bout ship, and put back for Madagascar. The wind 
favoring us, the water-logged vessel got on somewhat better in its new 
course, and on the third day, I was sent, along with the captain’s boy, up 
to the mast-head to look out for land, since nobody else could be so well 
spared. In such apparent danger, my being a passenger was no excuse. 
Accordingly I went up, and sat there two hours and a half, looking across 
the broad ocean for the much desired land. At length a speck seemed 
to rise on the horizon, and I asked my comrade if that were land ; for I 
feared to call out, and inspire men in such desperate circumstances with 
groundless hopes: they were not, I knew, in a frame of mind to be trifled 
with. I therefore did not call out till I could plainly discover a white 
cliff, and a smoke at a distance from it, whereupon I boldly shouted, 
Land! land l 

At this joyful news several sailors immediately ran up the shrouds, and 
even the captain himself, to make his observations. One among them 
knew the land, and said it was Port Dauphine, and that the king of that 
part of the island—all the people being negroes, in a savage state—was 
an enemy to all white men, and treated all the Europeans who fell into 
his hands in a barbarous manner. This king, he said, was called Samuel, 
and he advised us by all means to avoid landing on his territories. This 
information put us into the utmost confusion and despair, and proved 
indeed our ruin. The man who made the discouraging report, spoke his 
real sentiments; but he labored under a mistake, as we afterward dis¬ 
covered. King Samuel had, it appears, received an affront from the crew 
of a French vessel, and he ever afterward attacked all French without 
mercy, who put into his dominions ; he had, however, no animosity against 
any other white nation, but the reverse; so that, had we put in there, we 
had at least saved our lives, and some of our cargo. Under the erroneous 
impression made by the sailor, we unfortunately steered westward along 
the coast, to see if a proper landing-place could be found. 

Crawling onward in this wretched condition, we kept a look-out for 
some safe spot to run the vessel aground. Nothing of the kind was to be 
seen; and the ship, staggering in the water, threatened every instant to 
be swamped. The men now went to the captain and asked him what he 
proposed to do, for the ship could swim no longer. He asked them if 
they approved of his running the vessel on shore at all risks, to which 
they all agreed, crying out, “Anything to save our lives.” It would 
have been of great importance to get ashore in an orderly manner; but 
this could not be done, in consequence of another blunder of the captain. 

We had lost our long-boat and pinnace at Bengal, and the captain not 
taking the trouble to replace them, we had but one small boat left. In 
this juncture, an attempt was made to ease the vessel by cutting away the 
masts, and throwing everything overboard, hoping she would drive high 
on the beach. This failed, and now our only chance of getting through 
the breakers that dashed on the shore was by the small boat, and a raft 
made with some planks and yards. 


THE STORY OF ROBERT DRURY. 


472 

While engaged making the raft, some of the natives, who were fishing, 
saw our distress, and made a smoke to guide us to the shore ; but although 
this looked like kindness, we entertained a poor opinion of the intentions 
of the savages. The raft was finished that night, and it was arranged that 
the attempt to land should be made in the morning. 

After a dismal night, day dawned, and all prepared to leave the ill-fated 
vessel. The first thing done was to send Mr. Pratt, our chief mate, and 
four men in the boat, with a long rope for a warp, to fasten on the land. 
A great sea constantly runs here upon the rocks, and before they got to 
land, their boat was staved in pieces; however, being pretty near it, by 
the help of some of the natives, who were negroes, they saved that part 
of the boat to which the rope was fastened. We had two English women 
on board; one of them would not venture on the raft, nor would the 
captain ; but the other woman and about forty or fifty of us did: I stripped 
off all my clothes, but took two purses of money, and a silver cup, and 
tied them fast round my middle. We hauled by the rope toward the 
shore, but were no sooner among the breakers, than the first sea upset the 
raft, and washed us off: some swum to the raft again, but were soon 
washed off; and though the woman was drowning just by me, yet I could 
not save her. I sunk under every wave, and with great difficulty got on shore, 
as did every one else on the raft, except the woman. There was such a 
surf running, and the sea broke so high, that we durst not venture out 
with the raft again, which the captain perceiving, ordered the cable to be 
cut, and let the ship drive nearer the land, where she soon beat to pieces. 
The captain got on shore with his father’s heart in his hand, which ac¬ 
cording to his request when dying, was put into a bottle, in order to be 
brought to England and buried at Dover. 

At length they all got on shore on pieces of the ship, planks, etc., two 
men only excepted, who were drowned, and the woman before mentioned: 
the other woman escaped, though she was so full of water, as well as 
some others, that we were obliged to roll and rub them well, to make 
them disgorge the water: we laid them also before a great fire, made for 
that purpose, and in a little time they revived. We were in all above one 
hundred and sixty, including the Lascars. 

The country now began to be alarmed, and we had already two or three 
hundred negroes flocking round us, picking up several pieces of silk and 
fine calicoes: the muslin they had little or no regard for. Our goods 
were driven ashore in whole bales; for what with saltpetre and other 
things, we reckoned there might be 300 tons left, after all that was thrown 
overboard at sundry times before. 

One of the negroes brought an ox to us, and intimated by signs that we 
should kill him ; but we made signs to them again to shoot him for us, we 
having no ammunition. When one of them perceived this, he lent us his 
gun, ready charged, and with it one of our men shot the bullock dead on 
the spot. 

It was extremely shocking to see the negroes cut the beast, skin and 
flesh together, then toss them into the fire, or ashes, as it happened, and 
eat them half-roasted. I shuddered for fear they should devour us in 
like manner; for they seemed to me to be a kind of cannibals, of whom 
I had heard very dreadful stories: everything, in short, appeared horrible 
to nature, and excited in us the most dismal apprehensions. 

Being very much at the mercy of the barbarians, into whose hands we 
had fallen, they used no ceremony in taking possession of every article 
that had belonged to the ship. While some were busily engaged in opening 


BITTER REGRETS. 


473 

our bales, and taking what they liked best, 1 observed that several of them 
regarded the iron they found much more than all those goods we usually 
look on as valuable, and took great pains to break all such pieces of 
timber as had iron in them. I broke open my chest, and took out only 
one suit of clothes, leaving the rest to those who had most mind for them. 

Our shipwreck had been conducted with so little regard to future pro¬ 
ceedings, or even the preservation of our lives against the attacks of the 
natives, that the whole company were now exposed to any fresh misery 
that might ensue. As I was a mere boy, and had no right to advise one 
way or another, I necessarily submitted to the decision of others. Our 
captain, whose rashness and folly had Caused all our disasters, proved 
equally incompetent in this new posture of affairs. He could give no 
directions; and two days and nights were spent very miserably on the 
shore, without coming to any resolution, or knowing what to do. 

On the third evening, about nine o’clock, we heard a man call out 
Hollo! at a great distance, like an Englishman, who, being immediately 
answered, came nearer, and asked who we were. Having given him the 
required information, he sat down with us by our fire, and told us the 
object of his visit. He was one of the crew of an English vessel, com¬ 
manded by Captain Drummond, a Scotchman, which had been two months 
before wrecked on the island, and the captain and crew, including a 
Captain Steward, were now detained by the king of this part of the country, 
and would gladly make their escape. He, our visitant, whose name was 
Sam, had been deputed by the king to bring information as to who we 
were, and what we wanted. Sam further gave us an idea of the condition 
of things in Madagascar. The whole island, he said, which was as large 
as Great Britain, was altogether inhabited by negroes, forming a great 
many petty kingdoms, which were almost continually at war with each 
other. All were much on a level as to barbarism, but they were generally 
acquainted with the use of firearms and gunpowder, which, with other 
articles, they got from English, Dutch, and other traders, in exchange 
principally for slaves. The capturing of slaves, in order to carry on this 
trade, was a main cause of the numerous wars between the different kings 
and chiefs. The only king who possessed the inclination to help dis¬ 
tressed English sailors was king Samuel, a man who had once been in 
Europe, and acquired some civilized habits ; and although he had a great 
enmity to the French, he would have succored us had we put into Port 
Dauphine. Sam having made an end of his story, to which everybody 
listened with the utmost attention, we parted, and went with heavy hearts 
to our respective quarters, which were under the bushes. It was very 
late, and we endeavored to repose ourselves as well as we could. The 
pieces of muslin served us to spread on the ground for beds ; but as for 
my own part, I could not close my eyes to rest. I now began to reflect 
on my former obstinacy and perverseness. The thought of my tender 
mother’s begging me on her knees not to go to sea, gave me the most 
distracting torture. I could now see my error, and repent, but who could 
I blame but myself? Here were many poor men, who had no other way 
to live, but I was reduced to no such necessity: I ran headlong into 
misery, and severely felt the effects of it. Tears I shed in plenty, but 
could not with any justice complain of fate or Providence, for my punish¬ 
ment was but the natural result of my own ill conduct. We were all up 
by daylight, and most of my fellow-sufferers got as little rest as I; for the 
man’s relation had made us give over all hopes of relief, and nothing but 
sorrow, distress, and despair, appeared in all its dismal forms in each man’s 


THE STORY OF ROBERT DRURY. 


474 

face, according to his different constitution. We had saved neither arms 
nor ammunition, the want of which completed our ruin ; for nearly one 
hundred and seventy of us would have made our way through that part of 
the country we wanted to travel, had we but wherewithal to defend 
ourselves. 

About one o’clock in the afternoon, the king came down with about 
two hundred negroes. They brought no firearms with them, lest we 
should seize them by force, but they were armed with lances. As soon 
as we saw them approaching us, we all stood together in a body, with our 
captain at the head of us. When they drew near, he called Sam and asked 
him who was our captain. As soon as he was informed, he came up to 
him, and took him by the hand, and said in a familiar manner, Salamonger, 
captain ; which is a term of salutation, much like our saying, Your servant, 
sir. The captain returned the compliment, Sam having informed him 
before in what manner he should behave himself to the king. His majesty 
brought with him four large bullocks, six calabashes of toake,(a kind of 
drink,) ten baskets of potatoes, and two pots of honey, all which he pre¬ 
sented to our captain; and gave us, moreover, two or three earthen pots 
to dress our victuals in. We immediately roasted the potatoes. The 
king stayed two hours with us, before he withdrew to the cottage where 
he proposed to lodge that night, and asked several questions about our 
ship, and the manner of her being lost. He told the captain he was heartily 
sorry for his misfortune, though in my opinion, that was nothing but a com¬ 
pliment ; for, as I found afterward, he was more brutish and dishonest 
than most of the other kings on the island ; and his whole nation were 
clothed for many years out of the effects they saved from our wreck. 

The next morning he paid us another visit, and then he told us # t.hat he 
expected we should prepare to go along with him to his town, and there 
we should remain till some ships should come to trade, when we might 
return to our own country. The captain suspecting this to be a mere 
artifice, told Sam to say that he would think of the proposal. Upon this 
the king departed, and gave us no further trouble at that time. As soon 
as he was gone, the captain called us all together, and in a very pathetic 
speech, addressed us as follows: — I am now on an equality with the 
meanest man here present; my fortune is as low, and my life is as little 
to be regarded; I do not pretend, therefore, to command, but to consult 
with you what is most expedient to be done in the present unhappy situa¬ 
tion of our affairs. However, said he, I am happy in this, that though my 
own life and liberty are lost as well as yours, yet this misfortune is not 
any ways chargeable on me, for I would rather have kept on my course to 
the Cape of Good Hope in a leaky ship, than put in here ; but you stren- 
uosly opposed it; for death in my opinion is to be preferred to our present 
and prospective condition. In death, our sorrows would have ended ; but 
now, who can tell the troubles and torments we shall yet undergo? (At 
this the tears stood in his eyes.) Consider, gentlemen, said he, we have 
neither arms nor ammunition wherewith to defend ourselves, and I have 
endeavored to prevail on the king to give us a passage through his country 
to a seaport, but in vain. Think of it, therefore, and consult your own 
safety as well as you can: be but of one mind, and I am ready to comply 
with anything you would have me do. As for my own life, I set no value 
upon it; it would not now be worth preserving, but for the hopes I have 
of being serviceable to my friends. Remember, I must return an answer 
to-morrow morning, and I will advise nothing, nor do anything without 
your concurrence. 


PLUNDERED BY THE NATIVES. 


475 


We went together and consulted, as the captain advised, and came soon 
to an agreement, for the matter in debate lay within a small compass 
The king had refused to give us leave to go to a seaport, and we had no 
arms to fight and force our way, if we could have found it. We therefore 
determined to go quietly up the country with the king, to his place of 
residence, where we were in hopes of seeing and conversing with Captain 
Drummond, Captain Steward, and the other people, who, being gallant 
and courageous men, and by this time somewhat acquainted with the 
natives, might probably be capable of giving us some proper and season¬ 
able advice. 

Next morning the king paid the captain a visit; they saluted each other 
in the usual manner, and sat down together upon the sand, while we all 
stood round them. Soon after, the king ordered Sam to ask the captain 
if he was ready to go, for it would be best to walk in the cool of the morning, 
and rest at noon. The captain observed that he did not ask whether he 
was inclined to go or not, as might reasonably have been expected, since 
he pretended to give him time to consider of it, but peremptorily asked 
if he was ready to go. The captain answered that we were. At this the 
king seemed fully satisfied, and ordered Sam to tell us he would breakfast 
first, and advised us to do so too, that we might be the better enabled to 
perform our journey. We had little satisfaction, however, in eating and 
drinking, especially since the hour was come in which we were obliged 
to leave the seaside; and it galled us severely to think how we were 
forced up the country, like a flock of sheep, at the pleasure of a parcel of 
barbarous negroes, without any power to make terms for ourselves like 
men. The king having sent, the word was given to march. I was ready 
in an instant, for I carried nothing with me but what I brought ashore ; 
but many of our people took pieces of silk and fine calico. We assembled 
together, and went to the place where the king’s tent was pitched. We 
were no sooner come than he was for marching. We left the sea with 
heavy hearts, looking very wishfully back as long as we could discern it ; 
and as often as we did, we observed the negroes hard at work breaking 
up our bales, and enriching themselves with the plunder of our goods. 
In short, they were so busy, that but few went back with the king. Our 
people were but ill disposed for traveling, since everybody was tired with 
working and want of rest. Many were lamed with hurts received in 
getting on shore; some were also without shoes, and most of us had but 
bad ones. Then, again, the country near the seaside, and some few 
miles further, is full of short underwood and thorny shrubs, which tore 
our clothes to rags; for the path was very narrow, and, before this accident, 
but little frequented; the ground also was sandy, so that when the sun 
was advanced pretty high, it scorched our feet to that degree that we were 
scarcely able to walk. 

About noon we came to one of their small, mean villages, consisting of 
about eight or ten houses, or rather huts ; for they were not above six or 
seven feet high, and about eight or nine feet in length, and their doors 
not above three or four feet high. Our people crept into these hovels to 
rest, and to see what they could meet with to refresh themselves. Some 
found honey, others milk, and others beef; for the king had given us free 
permission to take what eatables soever came to hand. The inhabitants 
were all absent, the men at the seaside taking advantage of the wreck, 
and the women and children fled into the woods at our approach. We 
passed several of these poor villages, but saw few of the people. Here 
we reposed till the heat was abated, when we made ourselves but a poor 


THE STORY OF ROBERT DRURY. 


476 

compensation by robbing them of their trifles, while they were enriching 
themselves with our most valuable commodities. 

In the cool of the evening we marched again, and in a little time came 
to a more open and better road. As we were now some miles from the 
sea, the king left us, and went before to his seat, leaving us to march at our 
leisure, having taken care that we should not want provisions, and left his 
chief officer strict orders to supply us with whatever we wanted, and what 
the country could afford. 

At night we came to another of these little villages, where we killed a 
bullock, and got a few earthen pots to cook our meat in. The water was 
very thick and nasty, they having none but what they brought from a great 
distance, out of holes and pits in the woods, and kept in calabashes, or 
long tubs, which hold about four or five gallons each: however, it served 
our purpose, for at that time we were not very curious. We reposed 
ourselves on the ground in the best manner we could, and rose the next 
morning by daylight. We had beef for our breakfast, without any bread, 
or roots, in the place of it, and our meat was full of sand: however, eating 
and drinking was the least of our concern at that time. We passed this 
day much after the same manner as the one before, with this difference 
only, that those who wanted shoes were sadly harassed in the woods. 

On the third day of our march, we came to our journey’s end. We 
were obliged to walk much faster than either of the two former, having 
more ground to traverse, and less time to do it in ; for we were ordered 
to be at the king’s town before sunset. I missed one of my purses in 
this day’s journey: the loss of it was not of any great importance to me at 
that time, for it would have been of little service to me had I kept it; but 
the loss of a medal afterward, which my dear mother had presented me 
with, as a testimony of her love, and a token to remember her, was no small 
addition to my other misfortunes. 

The residence of this king is about fifty miles from the seaside; for I 
reckon we might travel sixteen or seventeen miles a day. It stands in a 
wood, secured with trees all round, which seem to have been planted 
there when very young: they grow very regular and tall, and so close 
together, that a small dog cannot pass between them. The outworks are 
likewise armed with large, strong thorns, so that there is no breaking 
through, or climbing over them. There are but two passages, or gates, 
which are so narrow that two only can go abreast. One of these is to the 
northward, and the other to the southward: the whole is about a mile in 
circumference. 

When we came near our journey’s end, we halted, while Sam went to 
inform the king of our arrival. We were ordered to wait till he was ready 
for our reception; our captain, too, put us into the best form he could, 
ordering all our baggage, and such things as our people brought with 
them, to be lodged under a tamarind tree, and three or four Lascars to 
look after them. The king soon sent for us, and we marched in order by 
fours. He was sitting on a mat, cross-legged, in the open air, just before 
the door of his palace, with a gun leaning on his shoulder, and a brace 
of pistols lying by his side ; his sons and kinsmen sat in the same manner 
on the ground, on each hand of him, armed with guns and lances ; the 
natives joined them on both sides, and formed together a semicircle ; 
most of these were likewise furnished with guns and lances. There 
were mats spread from one end of the people to the other for us to sit. 
on; so that when we had joined them, the assembly assumed a circular 
form. We were somewhat concerned to see them all thus in arms, till Sam 


BOLD ATTEMPT FOR LIBERTY. 


477 

informed us that they never go from one house to another without them. As 
soon as we were seated, the king (by Sam) assured the captain he was 
welcome, and sent for ten calabashes of toake; six he gave to our 
people, three to his own, and one he reserved for our captain and himself. 
He also sent for Captain Drummond, Captain Steward, and the rest of 
their company. Captain Younge arose to salute them; and after the 
usual compliments were passed, the captains sat down together. The 
king ordered a servant to pour out some toake into a clean earthen cup, 
which he kept for his own use, and drank it up without drinking to any¬ 
body, but ordered some more to be poured out for our captain in another 
cup; but as it was dirty, he refused it: the king asked Sam the reason 
of it, who told him the truth, so he sent a man immediately to wash it. 
The captain, indeed, expected to be served out of the king’s cup, but 
Sam informed him that neither black nor white nor even his wives or 
children, ever drank out of his cup ; and this is the general custom of 
the country. 

When I saw the servant returning with the cup our captain had refused, 
I took out my silver one and presented it to him. After we had all drank 
out of it, the king wished to see it, and was so wonderfully pleased with 
it, that he desired to keep it; but the captain informed him that it was 
none of his, but belonged to a lad who was behind him. I called to Sam, 
and desired him to acquaint the king, that since so many people had drank 
out of it, I humbly conceived it could not be fit for his use. At this he 
and the people round him laughed heartily. He ordered me to stand up, 
that he might see me; however, I saved my cup this time. Night drawing 
on, he withdrew, ordering us a bullock for our supper. Notwithstanding 
his courteous reception of us, he would not trust us all to lie within the 
gates of the town. Our captain, Mr. Pratt, our chief mate, Mr. Bembo, 
our second mate, and myself, were the only persons who were so far in¬ 
dulged. We had a hutch ordered us next to that of Captain Drummond 
and his companions; but the rest of the people lay without the gates 
under the trees. In this manner we lived for some few days. 

Every morning we went, as was expected, in a body to visit the king; 
but one morning he ordered Sam to inform us that he had an inveterate 
enemy to the westward, who had hitherto proved too powerful for him, 
but since his gods had been so indulgent as to send some white men into 
his dominions, he would embrace so favorable an opportunity once more 
to try his strength with our assistance. But in the meantime he should 
be obliged to distribute us among his sons, who lived at distant towns, not 
only for the convenience of providing for such a number of us, (there not 
being room enough in this town,) but te ease himself of a charge which 
was too great and burdensome for him to support alone. He also sent to 
me this night to beg the silver cup before mentioned, with which request 
(knowing it was in his power to take it by force, if he thought fit,) I readily 
complied. This unexpected separation was a terrible blow to us, and we 
returned to our cottages with heavy hearts, well knowing if we could not 
find out some way to prevent it, there were no hopes of ever getting off 
the island. 

Hereupon the three captains, namely, Drummond, Steward, and 
Younge, with some of the chief of our people, entered immediately into 
a consultation about what was proper to be done in this emergency, and 
to make some bold attempt for our lives and liberty. Captain Drummond, 
as I heard afterward, was the person who proposed to take the king 
prisoner, and by that means to make their own terms with the natives. 


THE STORY OF ROBERT DRURY. 


478 

Now Captain Drummond and some others were men of experience and 
undaunted resolution: our captain, indeed, had courage enough, but he 
was too young. However, the proposition was universally approved of, 
and the time and manner of the execution was fixed. I was too young 
to be admitted as one of the council, therefore I shall not pretend to relate 
what reasons were produced either for or against the proposal. I observed 
Captain Younge and Mr. Bembo to talk with great earnestness, but in 
whispers, and with the utmost precaution. As I was then a stranger to 
that design, I slept sound, till I was roused in the morning by a great and 
sudden noise in the town, occasioned by the plot being put in execution. 
Our people went as usual betimes in the morning to pay their compliments 
to the king; and while some of them were at the prince’s house, the 
signal was given by one of Captain Drummond’s men firing a pistol, at 
which the king was seized, and his son at the same time. 

This instantly alarmed the whole town: I started up without my shoes, 
being frightened at the sudden outcry. Not knowing what was the 
matter, and seeing the negroes flocking out of the town, I ran with them, 
till I was taken notice of by one of our men, who called me back; and I 
was as much amazed as the natives to see the king, his consort, and one 
of his sons, with their hands tied behind them, under the guard of our 
people. They presently rifled the king’s mansion-house, and every other 
place where they could find any agreeable plunder. We happened to 
find about thirty small arms, a small quantity of powder and shot, and a 
few lances. The natives, as I observed before, ran out of the town, but 
they did it with no other view than to procure assistance ; for they soon 
alarmed the country, and returned with great numbers from all the adjacent 
towns, and immediately besieged us. They fired in upon us, and wounded 
one of our men in the groin, on which Captain Younge ordered Sam to 
tell the king if they fired any more, they would kill him that very moment. 
The king, hearing their resolution, called to his men, and desired them 
to desist, if they had a mind to save his life. 

This attempt, indeed, was bold and hazardous, and some, perhaps, may 
censure it as criminal. I shall not say much in its defense: but since 
I have come to years of maturity, I cannot forbear reflecting that if nature, 
even in a Christian country, will rebel against principle, what will it not 
do for life and liberty, under the tyranny and oppression of a barbarous 
and savage nation? Be this as it may, we put ourselves in a posture of 
defense, and marched out of the town ; six men under arms marched in 
the front; and in the body, where the king was, six went armed before 
him, and six behind; three before his son, and three behind ; and six 
brought up the rear, in which were the Lascars. Captain Younge, out 
of compassion, would have released the queen, and let her go wherever 
she pleased, but she would not abandon her husband. 

We had not gone above four miles on our march, before our wounded 
companion fainted, and not being able to carry him off, we were forced to 
leave him by the side of a pond of water, where, as I was afterward in¬ 
formed, they soon put him out of pain, by striking their lances into several 
parts of his body. Having marched about two or three miles farther, we 
got out of the woods, and found ourselves in a spacious, open plain, where 
we could see all around us, and soon found that our enemies were not 
only near, but numerous, and threatened immediately to attack us. We 
faced toward them, our armed men being in the front, with the king bound 
before them. Sam was ordered at the same time to tell him that our 
design was not to hurt either him or his son, nor to carry them into their 


CAPTURE OF THE KING. 


479 

enemies 1 country, but only to detain them as hostages for our safeguard 
while we passed through his dominions; and that as soon we came to the 
borders of Port Dauphine, we would let them go again, and give them 
back the arms and ammunition we had taken from them; but if the least 
violence was offered to us, we should sacrifice them both; and this we 
desired him to tell his people. 

Hereupon he called one of his generals to him, assuring him that he 
should receive no harm. Accordingly he left his gun and lance behind 
him, and came to us, where he was informed, both by us and the king, 
of our resolution; upon which he told us there should not be a gun fired 
while we preserved the king alive, and gave him civil treatment. 

This parley being over, we continued our march through the plain till 
near evening; many of us without shoes, as well as myself, and some 
sick, which obliged us to take up our quarters sooner than we would 
otherwise have done; so that every one was almost faint, and glad of rest. 
The king ordered Sam to tell us that an ox should be sent to us forthwith. 
We made a trench like a ring, in the midst whereof we planted the black 
king and his son: our captain and some few others were appointed as a 
guard over them: our armed men were divided into four parties, in order 
to secure us in the best manner they could. We had just finished our 
camp, when the officer who had been with us before, and three other 
men, brought us a bullock. He brought likewise some roasted meat in 
his hand, and a horn of water for the king; so we loosed our royal prison¬ 
ers 1 hands, that they might feed themselves. They ate some small matter, 
and gave the remainder to Captain Younge. 

While we were employed in killing the ox, we desired the king to send 
some of his people into the woods for some fuel to dress it, which he 
readily did; and they soon brought us sufficient for our purpose. But 
all this time we wanted water, and complained thereof to the king, who 
assured us that there was none to be got near that place by several miles, 
and that what small quantity was given him in the horn, was taken from 
that very pond where we left the wounded man, which could not be less 
than ten miles distant. This very much disheartened us; for we were 
parched with thirst, which was the more increased by the fatigue of our 
long march and the heat of the country. However, there was no help 
for us, and patience was the only remedy. When the king and his son 
had supped, we bound their hands before them, that they might sleep as 
easy as they could; so, after we had cut up our bullock, and divided it 
amongst us, we broiled and ate it, though with but little satisfaction, for 
want of water; and when we had made as good a supper as our unhappy 
circumstances would well admit of, we also used our best endeavors to 
repose ourselves. The three captains, however, agreed to watch alter¬ 
nately, and divided our people into three parties for that purpose. The 
king entreated his wife to go home and comfort his children, but more 
particularly recommended his beloved daughter to her care. She went 
at his request, but shed tears when departing, as did also the king and 
his son. Such of us as were not on the watch lay down; but we had a 
wretched night; for the ground was stony, and there was but little grass; 
and, what was still a greater affliction, we were excessively dry, and had 
nothing to quench our thirst. 

At dawn of day we arose, which was the second day of our travel, and 
the better to support ourselves under the fatigue of it, we ate part of the 
remains of our beef; but it was a miserable repast, as we had nothing to 
drink. However, we put ourselves in the same order as we had done 


THE STORY OF ROBERT DRURY. 


480 

the day before, and went forward. The natives perceiving us in motion, 
moved too, but kept at a greater distance, and went into our camp after 
we had quitted it, to see what they could find; and their labor was not 
altogether lost, for many of our people thought proper to leave half those 
India goods they had brought out of the town behind them, that they 
might travel with less fatigue. We walked with more ease half this day 
than we did the day before, it proving cloudy weather, and cool. About 
noon, the general who had been with us before came with some roasted 
meat and a horn of water for the king and his son: as we did not loosen 
their hands, we were forced to feed them. The general ordered Sam to 
ask the captains if they would release the king for six guns. I perceived 
there was a debate between them and Mr. Bembo; some thinking the 
six guns would be of great service to us, especially as we should still have 
the king’s son: others were of opinion that it would be more for our safety 
to keep the king: however, it was agreed at last that he should be dis¬ 
missed. We informed the general, that if they would give us six very 
good guns, and promise on their honor not to follow us, but return with 
their king, we would let him go ; and that as soon as we came to the 
river Manderra, which divided his dominions from those of Port Dauphine, 
we would release the king’s son, and leave all their arms behind us. 

The general was startled at this unexpected condescension of our 
people, and dispatched one of his attendants to the king’s other sons, who 
were not far of}' with their army, to acquaint them with our proposal; and 
in half an hour’s time, returned to us with six of the best guns. They 
made the more haste, lest our minds should alter: we kept them no longer 
in suspense than while we took the guns to pieces, to see whether they 
were in good condition or not; and finding them better than we could 
reasonably have expected in such a country, we released their king, and 
sent him away with the general. He took his leave of the prince, and 
went directly to the army. We were so near as to see the ceremony of 
his meeting with his sons, who fell down and embraced his knees, and, 
with all the earnestness imaginable, shed tears for joy. After they had 
kissed and licked his knees and legs for about five or six minutes, they 
arose to give his head officers an opportunity of paying the like homage; 
and after them, some others of an inferior station, who in general expressed 
a most sincere and passionate affection to his person, and showed all the 
demonstrations of joy imaginable on account of his return. This cere¬ 
monial being over, they all hallooed and fired their guns, as a public 
testimony of their joy and satisfaction. 

We now walked away on our toilsome march, still retaining the prince 
a prisoner as a hostage. In the course of the day we were disconcerted 
to observe that a crowd still hung on our rear, and that this party came to 
a pause when we encamped for the night. Our sufferings were at this 
point considerably increased. We could find neither victuals nor water, 
and were so parched with thirst, that we crawled on the ground to lick 
the dew; and this was all the refreshment we could then meet with. 

On the third day of our march we rose early, and put forward as well 
as we could. The negroes, who strictly observed our motions, were as 
ready as we; but we placed our armed men in the front, determined to 
make a bold push for it if they attempted to obstruct our passage. They 
divided, and let us proceed without molestation ; and though we traveled 
all the morning, yet we met with nothing remarkable, till we arrived at a 
little round hill, whereon there stood a prodigious large tub, about six feet 
high, which held near a hundred gallons, and was full of toake. Our 


RELEASE OF THE KING. 


481 

people were going immediately to drain it dry; but Sam threw it down, 
and spilt all the liquor, asking us, with some warmth, if we were so blind 
as not to see the plot that was laid for our destruction; for it was planted 
there to tempt us to drink, with no other intention than to poison us all, 
or, at least, to intoxicate us to that degree that they might rescue their prince 
without opposition, and ipurder us at their pleasure. 

While we were reflecting on this extraordinary action, the general and 
two or three more came up to us, and asked Sam what reason he could 
offer for spilling the toake; to which he made no regular reply, but bid 
him be gone about his business. The general desired to speak with the 
young prince; and after a little discourse with him, directed Sam to ac¬ 
quaint Captain Younge, that if he should think fit to release the prince, 
they would give him three of the head men of the country in exchange. 
Under the delusive idea that they followed us only on accountof the prince, 
and that, if we should release him? they would all return back, our captain 
complied with the general’s proposition, and, in a short time, three men 
were delivered in exchange for the prince. 

All arrangements for securing the three new hostages being made, we 
proceeded on our journey as well as men could without provisions, and 
were too soon convinced of Captain Younge’s mistake ; for the negroes, 
instead of retiring, approached nearer, and some marched before us, so 
that we expected every minute they would attack us. We had a young 
lad in our company, who lost his leg in Bengal. Notwithstanding he was 
well recovered, and supplied with a wooden one well fitted, yet it cannot 
be imagined that he should be able to keep up with us: for, being now 
surprised by their surrounding us, we doubled our pace, and, in short, 
were obliged to leave this poor lad behind us. We saw the barbarians 
come up with him, take off his wooden leg, and first insult him; then they 
thrust their lances into his body, and left him wallowing in his blood. 
Being eyewitnesses of this act.of inhumanity, and apprehensive of the like 
treatment, we hurried on as fast as our feeble limbs would carry us till sun¬ 
set, when we came to a large tamarind tree, the leaves whereof, as they 
were sour, we chewed, to moisten our mouths. The fruit itself was not 
then in season. , 

The three negroes whom we had taken as hostages, observing what had 
passed, and thinking their lives in danger, called to Sam and the captains, 
and told them they had a scheme to propose, which would be for the safety 
of us all; which was this, that as soon as it was dark, we should keep 
marching on, as silently as possible, all night. The captains approved of 
this proposal, and ordered none of us to sleep, but to be ready as soon as 
the watchword was given. This was very grievous, considering how tired 
we were the day before; but we submitted cheerfully to anything that 
gave us hopes of escaping from the violent hands of those bloodthirsty 
barbarians. As soon as it was dark enough to conceal our flight, we 
assembled together, and took a considerable quantity of muslins and 
calicoes and hung them upon the bushes, that the spies, who we knew 
watched us, might not anywise mistrust our sudden removal. 

We walked off accordingly undiscovered by them. Captain Drummond, 
however, being taken so ill that he could not walk at all, none of us being 
strong enough to carry him, we resolved to make the three negroes per¬ 
form that office by turns. After we had thus traveled most part of the 
night, we came to a thicket among some cotton trees, where the man who 
had the charge of Captain Drummond threw him upon the ground, ran 
away into the wood, and we never saw him more. Upon this we had a 
31 


482 


THE STORY OF ROBERT DRURY. 


more watchful eye over the other two, and led him whose turn it was to 
carry the captain with a rope about his neck. 

Weak as we were, we traveled a great many miles that night, and were 
glad when the day broke upon us; for the negroes had told us before, 
that if we walked hard all night, we should be at Manderra river betimes 
in the morning. And their information was correct; for as soon as we 
came to a little hill, the sun then just rising, we had a prospect of the 
river, though at a considerable distance; however, the hopes we had of 
coming to it in a short time, and of getting water to quench our thirst, 
gave us no small pleasure, and our spirits began to revive at the very 
sight of it. It was some comfort, likewise, to think that the king’s dominions 
extended no farther, notwithstanding there were no inhabitants to protect 
us within several miles on the other side. Some of our people who were 
more tired than the rest, took liberty to sit down to refresh themselves, as 
taking it for granted that the negro army would never come in sight of 
us again. 

But this vain notion of being safe and secure too quickly vanished; for 
as soon as they missed us in the morning, they pursued us like so many 
beagles, and before we got within a mile of Manderra river, overtook us. 
Thereupon they began to butcher our men then resting under the trees, 
striking their lances into their sides and throats. Though I was one of 
those who could not travel well, yet there were twenty behind me: the 
woman whose life was preserved in our ship was next to me. I, seeing 
them kill our people in this barbarous manner, threw off my coat and 
waistcoat, and trusted to my heels ; for the foremost of our people having 
passed the river, and I not being far off, took courage ; but hearing the 
report of a gun, I looked back, and saw the poor woman fall, and the 
negroes sticking their lances in her sides. My turn was next, for the 
same negroes pursued me, and before I reached the brink of the river, 
they fired a gun at me, but I jumped in. Our men who had got safe over 
made a stand, in order to defend those who were behind ; and notwith¬ 
standing the negroes followed me so close, I could not refrain from 
drinking two or three times. 

Those who had got over now marched forward, and I kept up with 
them as well as I could. We had a wood to pass through, and the negroes, 
as soon as they saw us quit the banks, immediately crossed and pursued 
us. They got into the woods, and, firing behind the trees every now and 
then, they killed three or four of our men. We had not traveled above 
two miles in this wood, before we came to a large, sandy plain, to which 
we could see no end ; and here they determined to stop our progress, 
since, if we went much farther, we should be within hearing of king 
Samuel’s subjects, who were their mortal enemies, and would readily 
assist us. They divided themselves, therefore, into several bodies, in 
order to break in upon us on all sides; and we, being apprised of their 
designs, were resolved to sell our lives and liberties as dear as possible. 
Hereupon our captains put us in as good a posture of defense as they 
could, and divided the men who bore arms into four classes; one under 
the command of each of our three captains, and the other under Mr. 
John Bembo: such as had no arms, or were disabled, were covered in a 
little valley, and with them were the two negro hostages. 

We had not above thirty-six firearms among us all, and not many more 
persons fit to fight, so that we were a poor handful to withstand an army 
of two or three thousand. When they found we made a stand, they did 
so too, and according to their wonted manner, where it could be done, 


BATTLE WITH THE NATIVES. 


4S3 

three or four of them in a place threw up the sand before them, and being 
also beneath us, we could see only their heads. Their shot flew very 
fast over us, and we kept them in play from noon till six in the evening, 
by which time all our ammunition was spent. Those of us who had money 
made slugs of it; our next shift was to take the middle screws out of oui 
guns, and charge our pieces with them. When we had used all these 
means, we knew not what to do further: now we began to reflect on those 
who advised us to deliver up first the king, and afterward his son, since 
the keeping of them would have been our principal safeguard. The two 
negroes in our custody expected no doubt every minute to be killed, as 
very justly they might; but as their death would be of no service to us, 
we did them no injury. 

At length it was unanimously agreed that Dudey and her husband should 
be sent to the enemy with a flag of truce, not only to prolong the time, 
but to know what they further wanted; so we tied a piece of red silk to 
a lance, and sent them away. They kept firing at us all this time, not 
knowing what we meant by not returning it. They shot at those who 
carried the flag; but perceiving that they were not armed, the prince 
ordered them to cease. Dudey was interpreter, and told them that our 
captain was inclined to make peace with them, and to deliver up the two 
hostages, with the guns and ammunition we took with us, as soon as we 
were advanced a little further into the country. They said they would 
suffer us to go in the morning, in case we would deliver up our arms and 
the men, but not that evening, because it was dark. Their true reason 
was this: they knew, if we got away that night, we should send some of 
King Samuel’s people, who were their bitter enemies, to be revenged on 
them for the ill-treatment we had met with. 

With the vain idea of appeasing them, it was resolved that next morning 
we should give up our arms, Captain Drummond and some of his friends, 
however, protesting against the folly which the party were about to commit. 
Morning dawned, after a dismal night, bringing with it a day of sorrow. 
As soon as we could see, we missed Captain Drummond, Captain Steward, 
Mr. Bembo, Dudey, and her husband, and four or five more, who deserted 
in the night, without communicating their intentions to us. Now we 
plainly saw destruction before us, and the end of this miserable journey, 
which, after so bold an attempt, we undertook for the preservation of our 
lives and liberty: and a tragical one it was; for no sooner was it broad 
daylight than the negroes came up to us, and the prince had a short con¬ 
ference with Sam. Captain Younge asked him the purport of their 
discourse ; he answered, they wanted to know what was become of 
Captain Drummond and the rest. The words were no sooner out of his 
mouth than one of the princes took hold of me, and delivered me to one 
of his attendants. There were three or four lads like myself, and much 
about my age, who were seized at the same time, and delivered to their 
people in the same manner, who bound our hands with cords. 

There now ensued a scene of horrid butchery, every one of our unfor¬ 
tunate company, including Captain Younge, being killed on the spot. 
The bodies were next stripped of their clothing, and every article car¬ 
ried off as spoil. Little time was consumed in this tragical affair; for 
the savages expected that the subjects of King Samuel, roused by Captain 
Drummond, would soon be down upon them; and I afterward learned 
that such a friendly force actually came soon after our departure. In the 
attack which had been made on us, Sam contrived to escape, and returned 
with the negroes; whether he was ever sincere in his friendship for us, is 


484 THE STORY OF ROBERT DRURY. 

doubtful; however, by our infatuated simplicity, we had been our own 
worst enemies. 

I was now the captive of a naked savage, and was led away like a calf 
to the shambles, galled with cords, and not knowing what should be my 
fate. Other two lads were treated in the same manner, and soon we 
were parted by our respective masters. My master, or proprietor, as I 
may call him, was named Mevarrow; he was a chief of some consequence, 
or rather the king of a tribe, and his design was now to return home with 
his booty. 

All the way we went, I was shocked in observing the mangled bodies 
of our men, which lay exposed under the broiling sun. When we reached 
the river we had crossed, I was so faint for want of victuals, having had 
no sustenance for three days, that I could scarcely stand on my legs. 
Though my master expressed some little concern for me, yet he would 
not bait till he was past the river; however, he ordered his people to stop 
at the first commodious place and make a fire ; and now I was in hopes 
of some agreeable refreshment, for some of his servants had carried beef 
on their backs for that purpose. Though they cut it in two long pieces, 
with the hide, and dressed and ate it half roasted, according to their 
custom, and gave it to me in the same manner, yet I thought this contempt¬ 
ible food—and what a beggar in England would not have touched—the 
most delicious entertainment I ever met with. We rested here about an 
hour, when he to whose care I was intrusted made signs to know if I could 
walk; and as I was a little refreshed, I got up, and traveled the remainder 
of the day with more ease than I expected, since they walked but slowly, 
as I perceived, on purpose to indulge me. 

At night, we came to a wood, the place appointed for our lodging, and 
there we met with three or four men whom my master had sent out a 
foraging, and they brought in with them two bullocks, one of which my 
master sent to his brother, for the use of him and his people, and the 
other was killed for us ; for the army was now disbanded, and all were 
marching home with their respective chiefs to their own habitations. 
Here my master came to me and gave me a lance, intimating that I might 
cut out as much as I thought proper. I cut about a pound, without any 
part of the hide, which he perceiving, imputed it to my ignorance, and so 
cut a slice with the hide, and dressed it for me, which I ate with seeming 
thankfulness, not daring to refuse it. As soon as supper was over, each 
man pulled as much grass as was sufficient for himself to lie on: my 
guardian, however, provided enomjh for himself and me: I then reposed 
myself accordingly, and he lay/|fy me; but his black skin smelled so 
rank, that I was forced to turn myback on him all night long. I had very 
little rest, for the ghastly spectacle of my massacred friends was ever 
before me, and made me start from sleep as soon as I closed my eyes. 

At break of day we arose, and, after a short repast, marched on till 
noon, when we baited among some shady trees near a pond of water. 
While some employed themselves in kindling a fire, others were busy in 
digging up and down amongst the grass. I could not at first conceive 
what they were doing, but I soon observed one of them pulling out of the 
ground a long white root, which I found was a yam, having seen many 
of them at Bengal. They soon furnished themselves with a sufficient 
quantity. I perceived they grew wild, without any cultivation. Some 
of them were eighteen inches long at least, and about six or seven inches 
in circumference. They gave me some of them, which I roasted, and 
ate, with a great deal of pleasure, instead of bread with my beef. They 


REDUCED TO SLAVERY. 


485 

are very agreeable to the taste, as well as wholesome food. We arrived 
that evening at a small town, which we no sooner entered, than the women 
and children flocked round about me, pinched me, struck me on the back 
with their fists, and showed several other tokens of their derision and 
contempt, at which I could not forbear weeping, as it was not in my power 
to express my feelings any other way; but when my guardian observed 
it, he came to my assistance, and freed me from my persecutors. All 
the houses that were empty were taken up by my master, his brother, 
and other head men, so that my guardian and I lay exposed to the open 
air. The ill treatment I met with from the women and children put a 
thousand distracting thoughts into my head: sometimes I imagined 
that I might be preserved alive for no other purpose than to be carried 
to the king and his son, who would, in all probability, be fired with 
resentment at our late seizing of them, and making them prisoners; 
then again I thought, that, to gratify their pleasure and revenge, they 
would order me to be put to death before their faces, by slow degrees, 
and the most exquisite torments. Such melancholy reflections as these 
so disordered me, that when once, through weariness, I fell into a slum¬ 
ber, I had a dream which so terrified me, that I started upright, and 
trembled in every joint; in short, I could not get one wink of sleep all 
the night long. 

When it was broad daylight we marched homeward—for now I must 
call it so—and in three or four hours’ time we arrived at a considerable 
town, with three or four tamarind trees before it. One of the negroes 
carried a large shell, which, when he blew, sounded like a postboy’s horn 
This brought the women to a spacious house in the middle of the town, 
about twelve feet high, which I soon perceived was my master’s. No 
sooner had he seated himself at the door, than his wife came out, crawling 
on her hands and knees till she came to him, and then licked his feet; 
and when she had thus testified her duty and respects, his mother paid 
him the like compliment; and all the women in the town saluted their 
husbands in the same manner; then each man went to his respective 
habitation, my master’s brother only excepted, who, though he had a 
house, had no wife to receive him, and so he stayed behind. 

My mistress intimated by her motions that she would have me go in 
and sit down. Much serious discourse passed between my master and her; 
and though I knew nothing of what they said, yet, by her looking so 
earnestly at me while he was talking, I conjectured he was relating to 
her our tragical tale, and l perceived that the tears frequently stood in 
her eyes. This conference over, she ordered some carravances to be 
boiled for our dinner—a kind of pulse much like our gray peas: she gave 
me some, but as they had been boiled in dirty water, I could not eat them. 
She, perceiving I did not like them, strained them off the water, and put 
some milk to them, and after that I made a tolerable meal of them. She 
gave me not only a mat to lie down upon, but likewise a piece of calico, 
about two yards in length, to cover me. She intimated that she wanted 
to know my name, which I told her was Robin. Having received so much 
civility from my mistress, I began to be much better satisfied than I was 
at first, and then laid me down and slept, without any fear or concern, 
about four hours, as near as I could guess by the sun. When I waked, 
my mistress called me by my name, and gave me some milk to drink. 
She talked for some considerable time to me, but I could not understand 
one word she said. My master was all this time with his brother at the 
door, regaling themselves with toake. 


THE STORY OF ROBERT DRURY. 


486 

Through the kindness of my mistress, who had herself been taken cap¬ 
tive, and brought as a slave to my master’s camp, I was less harshly treated 
than any of the other slaves in the establishment, of whom there were 
upward of two hundred. Perhaps, also, I was indebted to my want of 
bodily strength for not being put to excessive labor. Nevertheless, my 
fate was most distressing and hopeless. At night I slept in a hut without 
any furniture, and my clothes being taken from me, the only covering 
which I wore was a piece of cloth round the middle, like that worn by all 
the people in the country. Thus stripped of my apparel, and almost 
entirely naked, I was a miserable looking object; but I suffered less from 
the cold than heat. The sun beat on my body, blistering the skin, and 
covering it with freckles, while I was exposed at the same time to the bites 
and stings of insects, of which there is a vast vaiiety in Madagascar. 

I was first tried by my master as a laborer to hoe the weeds in the 
fields of carravances; but being awkward at that kind of work, I was made 
to attend on the cattle, drive them to water, and see that they did not 
break into any of the plantations. Beside this, I was obliged to drag home 
every night a tub of water for the use of the family, there being no water 
near my master’s house. In my employment as a neat-herd, I had the 
society of other boys, also attendants on their master’s cattle, and from 
these companions, who were natives of the country, as well as from others, 

I picked up a knowledge of the language, and was soon able to speak it 
so as to be understood. 

After being some months in this kind of service, my master departed, 
with a numerous band of followers, on a warlike expedition. He was ab¬ 
sent for more than a fortnight, and, at his return, made a triumphant entry 
into the town, amidst the firing of guns and blowing of horns. After 
Mevarrow, came his brother Sambo and the attendants, followed by the 
cattle which had been taken from the enemy ; the prisoners of war, now 
become slaves, brought up the rear. The great man, my master, having 
halted, and seated himself in front of his house, his consort, attended hv 
the women of the neighborhood, came as usual and licked his feet. 

During this ceremonial my master, casting his eyes around, saw me 
at a distance, and called me to him. I approached him in a manner con¬ 
sidered respectful, with my hands lifted up, as in a praying posture; but 
did not kneel down, as all the others did, having a conscientious reluctance 
to perform such an act. Whereupon my brutal owner flew into a rage, 
and reproached me for not paying him the same respect as his wife, 
mother, and others about him. However, I peremptorily refused, and told 
him I would obey all his lawful commands, and do whatever work he 
thought proper to employ me in, but this act of divine homage I could 
never comply with. 

On this he fell into a violent passion, upbraided me with being ungrateful, 
and insensible of his saving me from being killed among my countrymen, 
and urged, moreover, that I was his slave, etc.; but notwithstanding all,, 
this, I still continued resolute and firm to my purpose. Whereupon he * 
arose from his seat, and, with his lance, made a stroke at me with all his 
might; but his brother, by a sudden push on one side, prevented the 
mischief he intended. He was going to repeat his blow, but his brother 
interposed, and entreated him to excuse me; but he absolutely, and in the 
warmest terms, refused to forgive me unless 1 would lick his feet. His 
brother begged he would give him a little time to talk with me in private, 
which he did; and after he had told me the danger of not doing it, and 
that, in submitting to it, I did no more than what many great princes were 


ESCAPE. 


487 

obliged to do when taken prisoners, I found at length it was prudence to 
comply; so I went in, asked pardon, and performed the ceremony as 
others had done before me. He told me he readily forgave me, but would 
make me sensible I was a slave. I did not much regard his menaces; for, 
as I had no prospect of ever returning to England, I set but little value 
on my life. The next day I incurred his displeasure again, and never 
expected to escape from feeling the weight of his resentment. 

My master then performed the ceremony of thanksgiving to God for 
his happy deliverance from all the hazards of war, and for the success 
of his arms; which is done by some silly adoration before a kind of 
household altar, accompanied with ridiculous ceremonies. Having per¬ 
formed his devotions, my master would have me do the same; but this 
I also firmly refused, and he was now more savage than ever. Taking 
hold of me by one hand, and with his lance in the other, he threatened 
instantly to sacrifice me. I expected nothing but death, and waited every 
moment in an agony for the mortal blow. Sambo, at this crisis, again 
humanely interfered, along with many others, all using their utmost en¬ 
deavors to persuade him against so rash an action; but to no purpose; till 
his brother at last very warmly told him he would that minute depart, and 
see his face no more, if he offered to be guilty of such an act of inhumanity; 
and rose up to be gone accordingly. When my master saw his brother 
was going in good earnest, he called him back, and promised to spare my 
life, but assured him he would punish me very severely for my contempt 
of his orders. Sambo told him he should submit that to his own discretion; 
all he begged of him was, not to kill me. Upon this, by a secret sign, 
he advised me to kneel down and lick his feet, which I readily complied 
with, and asked his pardon. When I got up, I kneeled down to Dean Sambo 
of my own accord, and licked his feet, as a testimony of my gratitude and 
respect for thus saving my life a second time. 

As soon as this storm was blown over, I was remanded to my former 
post of cow-keeper. I had a great deal of trouble sometimes with these 
cattle, for they are very unruly ; and notwithstanding they are larger 
beasts than any I ever saw elsewhere of the kind, they are so nimble, that 
they will leap over high fences like a greyhound. They have an excres¬ 
cence between their shoulders, somewhat like that of camels, all fat and 
flesh, some of which will weigh about three or fourscore pounds. They 
are also beautifully colored: some are streaked like a tiger, others, like 
a leopard, are marked with various spots. Here are, likewise, some sheep, 
with large heavy tails, like Turkish sheep—not woolly as ours, but more 
like a goat; and also a small number of goats, resembling those of other 
countries. There are, beside, plenty of hogs in the country, and immense 
swarms of bees. These bees produce a vast abundance of honey, from 
which the natives make their drink called toake. 

[What with cow-herding, gathering honey, helping to build huts with 
wood and clay, and going sometimes, greatly against his will, on warlike 
or cattle-stealing expeditions, beside doing much thankless drudgery of a 
miscellaneous kind, Drury informs us that twelve years were consumed; 
Often in his hut, in the silence of night, he thought of his father, mother, 
and friends in England, and wept when he reflected on the hopelessness 
of his lot. He, however, felt more than he could well express, even by 
tears. Twelve years of slavery had changed him in a remarkable manner. 
He had forgotten his own language, and could no longer converse in 
English. The words stuck half-expressed on his tongue. From being 
a handsome English boy, he had grown to be a brown-skinned savage. 


THE STORY OF ROBERT DRURY. 


488 

His feelings had been changed as well as his person; and in some of his 
habits he was little superior to the lower animals. Yet, as has been said, 
he sometimes wept, and never forgot his home. The recollection of his 
mother’s tenderness could not be obliterated from his memory. It sur¬ 
vived all the horrors of his hapless condition, and stimulated him to attempt 
his escape from an odious bondage. 

He pondered long on the means of absconding; and, at length, by the 
friendly aid of a fellow-servant, he took to flight. His plan was in the 
first place, to reach the territory of a chief, called Afferrer, friendly to the 
whites, before his absence was discovered; and although this required 
great dexterity and toil, he effected the journey. Still, he was scarcely 
safe. His enraged master sent messengers to request that he should be 
delivered up as a runaway slave, and poor Drury trembled for the result. 
Afferrer appeared to be shocked at the proposal. He said that the idea 
of making a white man a slave was ridiculous, and that the refugee should 
remain with him as long as he pleased, or go wherever he thought proper. 
The men were therefore obliged to return disconcerted, and Drury was 
in the meantime secure. In this new home he was certainly not compel¬ 
led to work as a slave, but neither was he altogether a freeman. The 
chief with whom he had taken refuge was pretty constantly at war, and 
his object was to make use of him in his expeditions. Constrained to 
appear satisfied, Drury lived with Afferrer two months, going with him on 
two excursions against his enemies. As this, however, was an employ¬ 
ment not at all to the mind of the refugee, he took an opportunity of once 
more escaping. We continue the narrative chiefly in his own language.] 

With a bundle of dried meat, which I had contrived to conceal, I set 
off on my journey, walking briskly all night, and keeping in a south-easterly 
direction, with the hope of reaching Port Dauphine. A great river, called 
the Oneghaloyhe, issuing in St. Augustine’s- bay, I was told had to be 
crossed on the journey. In the morning I saw certain mountains that 
had been mentioned to me; by this I perceived I had made considerable 
progress, and therefore would not conceal myself, as at first I proposed, 
but proceeded on my journey, looking sharply about me, in case of any 
lurking enemy. With little to fear, I went merrily on, singing Madagas¬ 
car songs, for I had forgotten all my English ones. The bellowing of the 
wild cattle would now and then make me start, imagining they were my 
pursuers. When I came to a pleasant brook, I baited there, and at sunset 
I looked out for a covert in a thicket to lie in; but I could not find one 
near at hand, so I was contented to repose myself in the open plain, 
pulling up a sufficient quantity of grass for a bed and a pillow, and making 
a small fire to warm my beef. I did not think proper to make a great one, 
lest it should be discerned at a distance, for in the afternoon I observed 
some fires to the eastward of the mountain. I was disturbed in my sleep 
by night-walkers, whom I imagined were my pursuers, and accordingly 1 
took up my lances in order to defend myself; but when I was thoroughly 
awake, I found they were only some cattle that snorted at the smell of my 
fire, and ran away much more afraid of me than I was of them. 

The second day, in the morning, I stayed till the sun appeared 
before I moved forward, that I might not be deceived in my course. 
Nothing remarkable happened this day. I looked out early this evening 
for a lodging, the clouds gathering very black, and soon found a large 
thick tree, where I kindled a fire, warmed some meat, and hung up the 
remainder, to keep it as dry as I could, for I had nothing else that could 
be injured by the rain. At length it poured down, as I expected, in a 


ADVENTURES BY THE WAY. 


433 

violent maimer, attended with thunder and lightning. It soon penetrated 
my roof; however, I crowded myself up together, with my head on my 
knees, my hands between my legs, and my little body-covering over my 
ears. The rain ran down like a flood, but, as it was warm, I did not so 
much regard it. In three or four hours it was fair weather again, and i 
laid me down and took a comfortable nap. 

T he next morning I dried my beef at a fire, which I made for that pur¬ 
pose, for it was the third day after it was killed; but I was very careful 
of it, not knowing how to kill more at that time; so I put it up in clean 
grass, and marched forward. The mountains over which I was to pass 
seemed very high, craggy, and thick with wood, and no path nor opening 
could I find. It looked dismal enough, but I was determined to run all 
hazards. Those mountains seemed to me to traverse the island, and 
appeared, as we call it at sea, like double land—one hill behind another. 
I saw nothing all this day but a few wild cattle, and now and then a wild 
dog. The weather was fair, and I slept sound all this night. 

The fourth day I walked till noon, at which time I baited; my beef was 
now but very indifferent. In the afternoon, as I was walking, I saw about 
a dozen men before me; upon this l skulked in a bush, peeping to observe 
whether they had discovered me ; but I was soon out of my pain, for they 
were surrounding some cattle, a good way to the westward, on a hill. I 
was likewise on another hill, so that I could see them throw their lances, 
and kill three beeves, which I \\9s well assured were more than they could 
carry away with them at once. I stayed where I was, proposing, when they 
were gone, to have some beef. To work they fell immediately, cutting 
up the beasts, and each man made up his burden, hanging the remainder 
up in a tree, that the wild dogs might not get it, and went home to the 
eastward. As soon as they were gone, and I had looked well about me, 
I threw away my bad meat r made up to the tree, and took as much as I 
could well carry. Away I marched with my booty toward the mountains, 
not daring to rest, lest they should return and discover me. In less than 
au hour I reached the foot of the hills in the thick woods, and finding no 
path, nor track of men, nor any hopes of any, not knowing what to do, I 
determined to go through all; but as I happened on a run of water, I took 
up my quarters near it, made a fire, cut some wooden spits, and roasted 
my beef. I kept my fire burning all night, lest the foxe^ should come 
and attack me. 

The next morning I made up my package with grass, binding it with 
the bark of trees, and moved forward up the hill. My burden was now 
much lighter. In an hour, though I could find no path but what some 
swine had made, I got to the top of it. I climbed a high tree to take a 
survey; but could discover no entrance, nothing but hills and vales, one 
beyond another; a cragged, dismal desert was all that presented itself to 
my view. I would have descended, had I not been in danger of being 
seen by the hunters; beside, I could not tell which way to look, whether 
east or west, for the proper pass ; so setting a lance up on end, I turned 
the way it fell, though I imagined it was due north, or rather somewhat 
to the eastward. However, superstition prevailed where reason was nowise 
concerned, for I was as likely to be right one way as another; and in case 
I went to the northward, so long as I knew it, I must go as often as I could 
to the westward, as sailors are forced to do, run their latitude first, and 
their longitude afterward. I went down this hill, and up another, which 
was about an hour’s walk; but when I came to descend this, it was right 
up and down. Without due thought, I threw down my lances, hatchet, 


THE STORY OF ROBERT DRURY. 


490 

and burden, thinking to descend by a very tall tree, whose top branches 
reached close to the brow; but I could not do it. However, I made ropes 
of the bark of a tree, and fixing them to the strongest branches, I slid 
down, I dare say, no less than thirty feet, rather than I would lose my 
lances and other materials. I passed over a fine spring and run of water 
in the vale. Though the hill on the other side was a craggy, steep rock, 
I found a way to ascend it; and on the top, climbed another to take my 
view; but had the same dismal prospect. Here I dug faungidge, it being 
sunset, and seeing a hole in a large rock, I had thoughts of taking up my 
lodging there; but peeping in, on a sudden I heard such an outcry, which, 
with the echo in the rock, made so confused a noise, that I knew not 
what it could be. My fears prevailed, and I imagined it might be pursuers, 
for it drew nearer and nearer; so, setting my back to a tree, with a lance 
in each hand, I waited for the murderers, when instantly came squeaking 
toward me a herd of wild swine, which ran away more terrified than my¬ 
self. After I was well recovered from my fright I made two fires, for 
fear of the foxes, and then laid me down on my stony bed, for here was 
no grass. 

The next morning, which was the sixth day, I made a hearty meal on 
roots and beef, and, the hill extending north and south, I went straight 
on till it declined gradually into a valley, in which was a small river that 
ran westward. By the time I arrived at the top of the next hill it drew 
toward evening, for I was not much less than two hours in ascending it; 
and yet, considering my burden, though it was not very heavy now, I 
went at a good pace. As I was looking out for a commodious lodging— 
that is to say, a place with the fewest stones in it—I discovered a swarm 
of bees; this was a joyful sight, for it was food that would not spoil with 
keeping. I soon cut down a tree, and smoked them out. 

I made such a hearty meal this night of honey and beef, that I slept 
too sound, insomuch that I was waked with a severe mortification for my 
thoughtless security. A fox caught hold of my heel, and would have 
dragged me along; whereupon I started, and catching up a firebrand, 
gave him such a blow as staggered him ; but as soon as he recovered he 
flew at my face. By this time I was upon my feet, and recovered one 
of my lances, with which I prevented him from ever assaulting me more; 
but his hideous howling brought more about him. I saw three, whose 
eyes sparkled like diamonds: however, they kept at a distance; for, with 
some light, dry wood, that lay near me, I made a blaze directly, in order 
to keep a flame all night; but did not wake to renew it, as I ought to 
have done; so that both my fires being almost reduced to ashes, one of 
them boldly ventured between them; and it was very happy for me that 
he did not seize upon my throat, for when men have negligently slept 
where they haunt, I have known them meet with such a mischance. 
After I had made up my fires, and put my enemies to flight, I examined 
my heel, and found two large holes on each side where his teeth had 
entered. I bound it up in the best manner I could, and making a great 
fire, threw the fox upon it by way of resentment. I had not that pleasure 
in eating my breakfast this morning I had in my last night’s supper; 
beside, my beef was now a little too tender; however, as I had honey 
enough for a week, and here were good roots in plenty, I did not concern 
myself much about it. 

I walked on the seventh day, and though I favored my lame foot as 
much as I could, yet I rested but once all day. This way happened to 
be plain and easy. At evening I came to a place where lay several bodies 


END OF TROUBLES. 


491 

of trees which were dead and dry. Thinking this, therefore, a proper 
lodging, I made four very large fires, sat me down to supper, and after¬ 
ward ventured to go to sleep with all those fires round me. But my heel 
now became so painful, and was swelled to that degree, that I could not 
go forward the next day; but as there was faungidge enough within 
twenty or thirty yards of me, I dug up several, and determined to continue 
here till my foot grew better. My beef was soon gone, but faungidge 
was both meat and drink to me. I saved part of my beef-fat to dress my 
heel with, which, as I gave it six days’ rest, took down all the swelling 
During this time I made such large fires every night, that, could they 
have been seen, were like those of an army. I had not far to go for wood, 
or anything else that I wanted, or at least that I could anywise expect in 
such a place. 

Proceeding on my journey, and exposed, day after day, to accidents, 
fatigue, and often hunger, I at length, on the morning of the twenty-third 
day, had the joyful sight of the Oneghaloyhe, a river as broad as the 
Thames at London. All day I spent in contriving how I should cross so 
broad a stream without a canoe, and lay down at night still uncertain 
what I should do. In the morning I thought of looking out for some old 
trees, or branches that were fallen ; and in a short time I met with several 
that were fit for my purpose—not only great arms, but trunks of trees 
broken off by tempests: these I dragged to the river-side. In the next 
place, I made it my business to find out a creeper, which is as large as a 
withy, but, twining round trees, is very pliant. I lopped off the super¬ 
fluous branches from six long and thick arms of trees, and placing three at 
bottom and three at top, I bound them together, making what we call in 
the East Indies a catamarran. I built it afloat in the water, for otherwise 
I could not have launched it, and moored it to a lance, which I stuck in 
the shore for that purpose. I then fixed my package, in order to preserve 
it as dry as I possibly could, as also my hatchet and my other lance; after 
that I made a paddle to row with. Then I pulled up my lance, and kept 
it in my hand to defend myself against the alligators, in case any of them 
should assault me; for I was informed they were very numerous and very 
fierce here. It blew a fresh gale at west against the stream, which in 
the middle made a sea, and gave me no small concern; for I was in great 
danger of being overset, and becoming a prey to the alligators. It pleased 
God, however, to protect me, and I landed safely on the other shore. 
This being a pretty good day’s work, I determined not to go much further 
that evening before I took up my lodging. 

[Traveling in the manner he describes, Drury had at length the good 
fortune to fall in with different tribes friendly to the English, among whom 
he lived for some time, but still watched by his jealous entertainers. The 
great man with whom he latterly lived was named Rer Moume, and by 
him he was kept two years and a half, during which an incident occurred 
that led to his removal from the island. The court of Rer Moume being 
visited by a person named William Thornbury, connected with the trade 
carried on upon the coast, Drury endeavored to interest him in his behalf; 
nor was he unsuccessful. After a lapse of many months, two ships ar¬ 
rived at a place called Yong-Owl to trade.] This (continues Drury) I 
was overjoyed to hear, and flattered myself that William Thornbury had 
not forgotten me. They stayed there for several days, and slaves were sent 
to be sold, and guns and other goods were returned for them. I was 
at a loss how to break my mind to Rer Moume, hoping he would say 
something to me of his own accord; but as I was sitting with him one 


492 


THE STORY OF ROBERT DRURY. 


evening, two men came in with a basket of palmetto leaves sewed up, and 
delivered it to the prince, who opened it, and, finding a letter, asked the 
men what they meant by giving him that. The captain, they said, gave it 
to us for your white man, but we thought proper to let you see it first. 
Rer Moume now handed me the packet, which, to my great surprise, con¬ 
tained a letter from Captain William Macket, directed To Robert Drury , 
on the island of Madagascar. I opened it, and the contents were to the 
following effect:—“That he had a letter on board from my father, with 
full instructions, as well from him as his owners, to purchase my liberty, 
let it cost what it would; and in case I could not possibly come down 
myself, to send him, word the reason of it, and what measures he should 
take to serve me.” 

Rer Moume perceived that my countenance changed while I was reading 
the letter, and asked me what was the matter. I told him that the captain 
desired to speak with me, and that my father had sent for me home, and 
hoped he would be pleased to give his consent. How do you know all 
this ? says the prince, can you conjure ? Then, turning to the messengers, 
Have you, pray, heard anything like this? Yes, said they, it is all the dis¬ 
course at the seaside, that Robin’s father sent both these ships for him. 
Rer Moume took the letter, and turning it over and over, said he had 
heard of such methods of conveying intelligence to one another, but never 
actually saw it before, and could not conceive what way it could be done 
without conjuration. I endeavored to demonstrate to him, as well as I 
could, how we learnt in our infancy the characters first, and then we put 
them together. But, says he, I presume you have no inclination to leave 
us now, since you live here so much at your ease? You have several 
cattle and a slave, and if you shall want more, you shall have them. These 
offers I of course put aside, and besought him to let me go. I said that 
if he thought proper to demand any consideration of the captain for my 
freedom, it should be paid. Rer Moume answered, that if I wished to 
go, he should take nothing for my release; but that if my friends would 
make him a present of a good gun, he should accept of the favor, and 
call it Robin, in remembrance of me. This generous answer gave me 
such joy, that I immediately kneeled down and licked his feet with the 
utmost sincerity, as justly thinking I could never sufficiently express my 
gratitude, lie would not dismiss me instantly, but did in a day or two 
after, and ordered the messengers to be taken care of in the meantime. 

How joyful were my feelings when I at length departed, and came in 
sight of the seacoast, with the huts which had been erected for trading 
with the commanders of the vessels. At these huts, or factory, as I may 
call it, I met Mr. Hill, the steward of the Drake, Captain Macket’s ship, 
aud two or three more of the crew, who took me for a wild man; and in 
a letter which Hill sent off by a canoe to the captain, he told him the 
wild Englishman was come. I desired him to say I could speak but little 
English; and for several days I was frequently puzzled for words to 
express my meaning. 

[A few days after this, Drury was taken on board of their vessel, which 
sailed for England; on his arrival he had been absent from his native 
country about seventeen years, of which fifteen had been spent in captivity. 
His pleasure was greatly damped by the intelligence of the death of his 
father and mother, grief for his loss having for years preyed upon their 
spirits.] 


INCIDENTS 


IN THE 


LIFE OF A YANKEE SAILOR, 

AS DETAILED BY WILLIAM NEVENS, IN HIS 

FORTY YEARS AT SEA. 


I was born in Danville, Maine, A.D. 1781, and spent the time of my 
youth to the age of seventeen, much in the manner of other children. 
While young, the peculiar cast of my mind was displayed by the plea¬ 
sure which I felt in listening to stories of the sea, in reading accounts 
of distant countries, and probably the earnest desire which I had of see¬ 
ing and knowing all these things, influenced me in my course. 

Being by trade a carpenter, I one day went to Bath to purchase some 
tools. While rambling about the wharves to see the shipping, I was 
accosted by a gentleman,.who proved to be the captaiii of a new brig, 
just from Liverpool. He inquired of me if I would like to take a trip to 
sea. Not feeling much inclined to drop my former occupation for ano¬ 
ther upon so short notice, I answered in the negative. Not satisfied with 
this answer, he continued his persuasions, peppering them occasionally 
with fine stories of a seafaring life—many of which I found quite the 
reverse in subsequent years—and in conclusion offered me ten dollars 
to go to Boston by the run. As money was then a cash article with me, 
this argument was not to be withstood; I therefore closed the bargain, 
went on board, and, all things being ready, we set sail June 15th, 1799. 
And the next day, at ten o’clock, a. m., we were in Boston harbor. This 
was my first trip, and little did I, a thoughtless boy, think that it would 
lead to such a result. I was then paid off, and was immediately offered 
one dollar per day, to stay and cook for the crew, while discharging the 
cargo, which I accepted, and remained here eight days, at the end of 
which I found myself the possessor of eighteen dollars, which I had 
earned in less than ten days. The next morning, as I was proceeding 
leisurely along, at the head of Long Wharf, fingering my change, and 
thinking how I might expend it to the best advantage, I was aroused 
from my reveries by a call from the opposite side of the street. Turning 
my head, I beheld an old tar, leaning against a grog-shop for his main¬ 
stay, who, on looking up, roared out at the top of his voice, “Hello! 
shipmate, heave to.” Upon this, I crossed the street, and asked him 
what he wanted. After some palaver , he asked me if I wanted to ship. 
I answered that I had not thought of it. In return, he stated that wages 
were good, and that I could not do better than to take a trip to the West 
Indies, in the brig Daniel and Mary, of Newburyport. The desire of 
seeing these picturesque islands, and of visiting that land which first 
greeted the eyes of the immortal Columbus, at once overpowered my doubts, 
and I answered that I would go, provided I could get wages to suit me. 

(493) 



ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 


494 

He now took me to the counting-house of the owners, and introduced 
me to the captain in the following words: “Here is a fine chubby fellow 
for you, who thinks he should like to take a trip to the land of sharks, 
and he looks like a right chap.” 

“What do you ask a month, my lad?” said the captain. 

I told him I did not know how much I could earn. 

“ Well,” said he, “ Perkins,” (which was my conductor’s name,) “ I 
will leave it to you, if the young man is willing.” To which I readily 
assented. After eyeing me closely, fore and aft, he said that I could 
earn eighteen dollars. 

“Will you go for that?” the captain asked. 

I replied in the affirmative, and having pocketed a month’s pay in 
advance, signed the shipping papers of the brig Daniel and Mary, New- 
buryport, of the firm of Sweet and Parley, and bound to the West 
Indies. 

You may be assured that I was well satisfied with this turn in my 
affairs: eighteen dollars, and an opportunity to see the world, being 
much more satisfactory than nine dollars per month, which was all that 
I could command as a carpenter. After having dispatched a letter to 
my parents, informing them where I was, and what were my intentions, 
I proceeded to lay in a stock of summer clothing, a trunk, bed, blankets, 
and other necessary articles, and then went on board, in company with 
the captain, whose name was McFarly. The brig was then lying at an¬ 
chor, well up the south side of Long Wharf, with no soul on board. The 
captain having unlocked the cabin, told me to put my trunk in there, the 
floor of which was completely covered with the ship’s stores, such as 
rum, molasses, tea, coffee, etc. He then directed me to make up my 
berth in the steerage, and, having struck a light, went on shore, and left 
me to fix things as I could. After I had made arrangements, as I thought, 
satisfactory to the captain, I resolved to satisfy myself, and helped myself 
to bread, cheese, and other eatables, not forgetting a glass of ‘snap-eyef 
to wash it down with. My external and internal condition having been 
thus duly considered, I had nothing to do but meditate upon the “change 
that had come o’er the spirit of my dreams,” in the short space of ten 
days. 

Nothing worthy of notice occurred, until our arrival at Port-au-Prince, 
July 26th. The Island of St. Domingo—now Hayti—was at this time 
convulsed by civil commotions. It was but a short period after the mas¬ 
sacre of the whites, the horrors of which are too well known to be 
recapitulated. A war of extermination raged between the blacks and 
mulattoes, the former occupying the north side of the Island, and the 
latter the south side. An embargo had been laid upon the ports occu¬ 
pied by the blacks, in order to starve them into submission; and this had 
just been taken off. 

While lading here, I had frequent opportunities of seeing the barbarity 
of the blacks toward their prisoners. Fears were entertained that the mu¬ 
lattoes would attack the city of Port-au-Prince, therefore we lay at anchor 
a short distance from the shore, with the stern warped in and moored. 
Beyond us, lay an old French frigate, converted into a prison-ship, which 
received a body of prisoners every day. When this prison became 
crowded, they were taken out, the oath of allegiance administered to 
such as would receive it, and the remainder were shot. Being on shore 
one morning, I witnessed the execution of ten in this manner. A few 
days after, several were executed in a different way. A lighter was 


ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 495 

hove out, and an old twenty-four pounder hoisted out over the side, 
about five feet above the wale, to which eighteen or twenty victims were 
triced, when the tackle was cut, and the gun tumbled into the sea, drag¬ 
ging with it the unfortunate prisoners. This took place immediately 
before our brig, and the water was so clear that I could see the miserable 
beings laying upon the bottom. Having at length completed our cargo, 
which consisted of coffee and sugar, we set sail in company with several 
other vessels, under convoy of the United States frigate Washington; 
and September 15, arrived at Boston, after a passage of twenty-one days. 

[ then bought me a suit of clothes, and resolved to act the gentleman; 
but found the business duller than I had supposed—moreover, I found 
that there still reigned in my breast the same ardent desire of seeing the 
world. I therefore, in a few days, shipped on board the Essex, bound 
on a whaling voyage to the South Sea. The crew was shipped on shares, 
with fifty dollars paid in advance, and consisted of forty hands. About 
the last of October, 1799, all things being ready, we put to sea, with a 
fair wind, and flattering prospects of a fine voyage. Our captain was 
Joseph Kilby, a fine, gentlemanly appearing person, and a thorough sea¬ 
man. The first mate was named Haskell, a Scotchman, who had for¬ 
merly been a lieutenant in the British navy, and master of a Guineaman, 
and was, in my estimation, one of the greatest villains that ever trod a 
deck. The ship was armed, on account of the war between the United 
States and France. Still, we were obliged to keep a sharp look-out for 
French privateers, and were trained to the guns every day, in complete 
man-of-war style. Nothing of a hostile appearance, however, troubled 
us, and as we were now drawing near the line, preparations were made 
to introduce about fifteen green hands to his majesty, Neptune, the sove¬ 
reign of the ocean. For this purpose,' the day before crossing the line, 
about twenty barrels of apples were hoisted on deck, overhauled, and 
the rotten ones thrown into some flour barrels, while those that were 
sound were returned below. The next day, about one o’clock, r. m., all 
the green hands were sent below to clean the forecastle, where they 
were immediately secured by closing the hatches. One of the whale¬ 
boats was then hoisted out of the launch, lashed to the starboard side, 
and filled with water. In the meantime, the gunner, who personified old 
Neptune, the ruler of the deep, horribly disguised, proceeded over the 
head of the vessel, and after having been thoroughly drenched with wa¬ 
ter, appeared coming in over the bows, as well soaked as if he had just 
sprung from the bottom. 

Armed with a trident in one hand and a speaking trumpet in the other, 
he addressed the captain in the following terms: 

“Ship ahoy! from whence came you?” 

“ From Boston, and bound to the South Pacific Ocean, on a whaling 
voyage. Pray, what do you wish here?” replied the Captain. 

“ I came on board to see if any of my children here have not been 
initiated.” 

“ There are none here.” 

His majesty, however, was not to be deceived, but soon smelt them 
out, and one by one they were hauled forward, and shaved with the hoop 
of an old barrel for a razor, and a precious mixture of tar, pitch, lime, 
and whitewash for soap-suds. As soon as this ceremony was over, about 
a dozen sailors, with each a bucket of water, proceeded to wet the offi¬ 
cers, as is customary on such occasions, who heeled it for the cabin; but 
in their haste, the captain, two mates, and steward, got completely 


ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 


406 

jammed up in the companion-way, and before the snarl could be well 
cleared, their capital extremities were smoothed down with about fifty 
bucketsfull of the trident king’s element, much to the glee of the sailors, 
who delighted in this spargefaction of their officers. 

The rotten apples were next called into requisition, which flew in all 
directions, until the vessel and crew were as completely bedaubed as 
one could wish. But as all visits must come to an end, so must Nep¬ 
tune’s. Therefore the head pumps were set to work, and soon all things 
looked trim again. The rest of the afternoon, it being calm, was spent 
in drinking lemon-punch, singing songs, and spinning yarns. [There 
are records of this custom of the “baptism of the line” as far back 
as 1712. It probably originated in the love of fun and frolic, for which 
sailors are so peculiar, and may have been designed with a view to 
relieve the tedium and monotony of a long sea-voyage, amid the calms 
which prevail in the region of the equator. The observance is now gra¬ 
dually falling into disuse.] The next morning, a favorable breeze spring¬ 
ing up, we shaped our course for the Cape de Verde Islands, and the 
first land we made was St. Jago. From here we took our departure, and 
steered for St. Augustine. 

Soon after our arrival at St. Augustine, the ship was overhauled and 
condemned. She had formerly been a whale-ship belonging to Salem, 
and after lying in port about two years, had been fitted up with a new 
deck and bulwarks, brought to Boston, and sold. Being now about to 
separate, the crews of the American vessels in the harbor resolved to 
have a grand supper on shore. I had in my chest one hundred and ten 
dollars, five of which I took to defray the expenses of the night; and 
about dark we were all assembled, each armed with a club to keep off 
press-gangs. Having passed the greater part of the evening merry mak¬ 
ing, myself, with three others, walked down on the beach, to enjoy the 
cool sea-breeze, and drive off the effects of our tamarind punch, where 
we were suddenly surrounded by an officer and ten or twelve armed 
men, who very unceremoniously bundled us into a boat and pulled off. 
There were eight or ten more in the boat, who appeared to be condi¬ 
tioned like ourselves. After winding our way among the different ves¬ 
sels in the harbor, we were pulled along side of an armed ship, and 
ordered on board. Inquiring, I found that I was on board his Britannic 
majesty’s sloop-of-war Cayenne, and that they had, according to the 
principles of John Bullism, taken me, without inquiring as to the charac¬ 
ter I sustained, into his majesty’s service. 

In the morning, we were all taken aft and overhauled; and here you 
may see a specimen of every day tyranny exercised, at that time, upon 
American citizens. The captain of the Cayenne asked me my name, 
and on answering that I was an American, he demanded to see my pro¬ 
tection. I took it from my pocket, and gave it to him. After looking at 
it, he said, “You are an Irishman. What business have you with a pro¬ 
tection? There are plenty of Nevenses in Ireland, but there never was 
one born in America.” He then tore up my protection, and threw it 
overboard, stating that he wanted men, and should keep me. When I 
found that right was of no avail against might, I sent, by a bum-boat, a 
note to Captain Kilby, stating my situation, and asking his assistance. 
Accordingly, about eleven o’clock, he came on board, and demanded 
me as an American citizen ; but the British Captain swore that he knew 

my father in Ireland, that I was a-Irish rebel, and ordered Captain 

Kilby into his boat. Finding that he was determined to retain me, l 


ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 497 

requested Captain Kilby to take home my chest and bedding, and if, at 
the expiration of a year, I did not return, to send them to my parents. 
Having made these dispositions, I bade adieu to liberty, and settled my¬ 
self to the consoling prospect of serving Great Britain a few years for 
nothing. 

Cases of impressment were not then of rare occurrence. Beside 
myself, there were eight or ten American born citizens in this same 
sloop-of-war; and there was not a vessel in the British Navy but what 
had more or less on board. Many escaped; but many more \yere obliged 
to endure servitude until the commencement of the late war, when thou¬ 
sands surrendered themselves as prisoners of war, rather than fight, 
against their native land. But some were not allowed this, and were 
compelled to serve the enemy under the ignominious lashes of that in¬ 
strument of torture, the cat-o’-nine-tails. 

Completely disheartened, about one o’clock in the afternoon I heard 
the coarse tones of the boatswain, calling, “All hands up anchor, ahoy!” 
and went aft to help man the capstan bars, and heave up the anchor. We 
were soon under weigh—the Cayenne, having the leeward station, was 
bound to Surinam. When about ten days out, we fell in with the Amer¬ 
ican sloop-of-war Moreland, Commodore Rogers, under the following 
circumstances. About sunset, saw a ship running from us, and the cap¬ 
tain expressed his fear that it was a French frigate that was cruising in 
this quarter, since we could not muster more than ninety men. Com¬ 
modore Rogers was cruising for this same Frenchman, and had seen us 
long before we saw him, and to give us no alarm had run from us. As 
soon as it was dark, he tacked ship and stood for us; and while we were 
gogging on, in a comfortable drizzle of rain, about ten, what should we 
see but a large ship sweeping down across our bows, with her ports 
up, lanterns lighted, and men at their quarters, all ready to give us a 
broadside. 

The lieutenant, in a fright, ran down and called the captain, who 
came up and ordered the boatswain to pipe all hands to their quarters; 
but before this could be done, Commodore Rogers hailed, “What ship is 
that?” To which the captain of the Cayenne answered, in true Yankee 
style, by asking who he was. “The United States ship Moreland.” 
This answer calmed the fears of our heroic captain, since he was inti¬ 
mately acquainted with the American commodore. He now had his gig 
lowered, and was pulled on board of the American vessel, and stopped 
the remainder of the night. About sunrise, the lookout on board the 
Moreland discovered a sail right ahead, and in two minutes her canvas 
was spread, and she was darting along, with a fresh breeze, in full chase, 
leaving our captain to make his way on board in his gig. We also made 
sail, but at eight o’clock the Moreland was hull down ahead of us. The 
captain of the Cayenne observed to the first lieutenant, “ These Yankees 
have deuced fine ships for sailing, but they do not know how to work them.” 
“Don’t know ’bout that,” replied the lieutenant, who was willing to give 
every one his due; “ if we had been an enemy, he would have shown us, 
last night, how to work ship, and would have blown us out of the water, 
before we could have brought a gun to bear.” The stranger was soon 
out of sight, and we saw no more of her until we had brought to anchor 
in Surinam river, when she came in, and anchored close by us. 

After lying here about a month, we set sail, and on the 20th of April 
arrived at St. Kitts, and cast anchor about three miles from the shore. 
This was done to prevent the crew from deserting. About half way 
32 


498 


ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 


between us and the shore lay the American sloop-of-war Baltimore. [ 
here resolved to seize the first opportunity to attempt an escape. I con¬ 
sidered myself quite a swimmer, but had never swum any great distance. 
There were also plenty of sharks, but I thought it no worse to be eaten 
by the sharks than to spend my life in British servitude. At length, one 
dark, stormy night, when no one was on deck but a sentinel, I crept into 
the head, divested myself of my clothing, threw over the swab rope, let 
myself down, and struck off for the Baltimore. The wind was fresh, 
and on my starboard beam, so that instead of making the sloop, I found 
that I was half a mile to the leeward, and to reach her I would be neces¬ 
sitated to beat up against wind and tide. I therefore abandoned my 
original intention, and put for the shore. After I had been in the water 
for more than two hours, and was almost exhausted, I came along side 
of a London brig, and climbed up her cable on board. There was but 
one man on deck, who, after listening to my recital, gave me a jacket 
and pantaloons, and also a glass of grog, which refreshed me much. 
He then informed me that I was not safe there, for his captain had been 
an officer in the British Navy, and that, but a short time previous, two 
sailors had swum on board, whom he had taken in his boat, and returned 
to the vessel from which they had deserted. 

Under these considerations, I thought proper to find some other shelter; 
therefore, after resting about half-an-hour, I threw off the clothes which 
he had so kindly given me, and once more committed myself to the 
waves. At length, when almost exhausted, I reached another brig, 
with a boat moved under her stern, into which I climbed, and from 
thence went upon deck, where I found the foremast men sitting on the 
main-hatch, drinking and singing, although it was near twelve o’clock. 
The mate, who was walking the deck, upon discovering me sung out, 
“Who’s there?” “A friend,” I responded. “A friend in distress, 1 
should think,” he returned, “ since you are scudding under bare poles.” 
He then gave me his jacket, and ordered one of the men to bring more 
clothing for me. In the meantime, he mixed a pint of weak sling, and 
told me to drink it, a little at a time. When I was somewhat revived, I 
related my stoiy, and found that I was among friends. 

On the following morning, I was called into the cabin by the captain, 
who, after inquiring into my affairs, told me that, as he had a full crew, 
he did not want me, but that his brother had written to him from Tetollen. 
to ship a couple of hands for him, and if I would go, he would take me to 
that place. The vessel in which I then was, was the Sally, of Greenock, 
Scotland, Captain Walker, and was about to join the convoy for home. 
In three days we sailed for Tetollen, and on our arrival I found that the 
captain’s brother had shipped all his crew, and did not want me. Here 
now was a pickle . The captain was unwilling to take me, but said he 
would set me on shore; and this I did not at all relish, for there were 
several men-of-war in the harbor; and as I had no protection, 1 should 
be impressed. The brig lay about four miles from the town, in the pas¬ 
sage between two small rocky islands. As the captain expected every 
moment to hear the signal gun from the commodore, for getting under 
weigh, and refused to take me with him, I told him to land me on 
one of these islands, and that I would run the risk of being taken off 
after the fleet had sailed. I was rowed to the island by two stout, kind 
hearted Scotchmen, who appeared to have a good deal of compassion for 
me, particularly when we came to the island, which was about an acre 
over, sprinkled with lime bushes, and not a drop of water to be found 


ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 


499 


This, I thought a little harder than anything I had yet seen; for if I was 
not soon taken off, I must inevitably perish by hunger or thirst. At 
length, the boat returned to the vessel, and when the sailors on board 
had learned my situation, they refused to leave unless I was taken on 
board. Presently, the admiral fired the signal for getting under weigh, 
but the sailors would not budge an inch to heave up the anchor, until a 
boat had been sent and taken me ofF, when they appeared as willing as 
ever. 

Soon after we had cleared the harbor, a small brig ran along side, 
which the captain hailed, and found her bound to New York. Seeing 
but few men on deck, our captain told them of my case, in answer to 
which he said, that, if I would go with him he would give me twenty- 
two dollars per month. This good fortune relieved my mind of an incu¬ 
bus which had weighed upon it ever since I had suffered impressment. 

The next thing was to get on board. Each of the vessels had but one 
boat, both of which were safely stowed on deck, and it seemed too much 
trouble to hoist them out. Therefore the little brig sheered up, as near 
as was safe, an oar was made fast to a line, and thrown under our bows. 
I then went into the forechains, threw off my clothes—thus leaving the 
vessel as naked as I entered it—seized the oar, and was dragged along 
side, from whence I crept into the main-chains, and there received some 
articles of dress before making my debut on deck. Just as I had reached 
the main-chains, a huge shark made his appearance from under the brig y 
who eyed me very wishfully, but happened to be a little too late “ for 
tea,” for I was out of his reach. I found myself on Ward of the brig 
Sally, Captain Evans, and a few weeks later in New York. 

During my intercourse with the English at this period, and in later 
years, I had taken many dry jokes in silence, upon the faint-heartedness 
of the Americans. A British officer once remarked to me that the Yan¬ 
kees were great cowards, or great fools, to stand all the sauce that the 
English government had given them. I replied that brother Jonathan 
was remarkable for his good nature, but that there was that in him, when 
roused, which would humble the British lion on anything like terms of 
equality; that we had suffered a great deal of imposition from Great Bri¬ 
tain, but such things, I told him, would not last long, and when war did 
come, they would find as brave hearts and strong arms in our insulted 
country, as in their own boasted land. He said he did not doubt the 
bravery of the people, but that would avail nothing while the policy of 
the government remained the same. “ I know,” said he, “ that we have 
violated the law of nations, but they dare not declare war against us, and 
all they can do is to remonstrate. Our naval power, at one sweep, 
would annihilate your force at sea, thus leaving your extensive coast 
open, and exposed to our attacks. Your government perceives this, and 
they will not venture into the contest. They will rather suffer in silence.” 
I excused this, by saying that it was much better to have a good and suf¬ 
ficient cause to make a war, than, at the first insult, to rush headlong 
into hostilities, without resources or preparation; but rather go calmly 
and deliberately to work, and at one swoop wipe out a long catalogue of 
insults and aggressions. I frequently remarked to them, that I myself 
had once suffered impressment on board his Majesty’s sloop-of-war Ca¬ 
yenne, and that I should yet see myself revenged, by seeing the Ameri¬ 
can stars and stripes waving at her mast-head, which was afterward so 
fully verified. To be sure, my assertions would sometimes raise a laugh 
at my expense, but there was generally some American near, who would 


ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 


500 

join me in a hearty cheer for our own native land. Indeed, when war 
was declared, a large portion of the English were opposed to the move¬ 
ment, and would cheer as loud as I could, when they heard of any dis¬ 
aster to themselves. When the loss of the Guerriere was ascertained, 
it gave me a fine opportunity of throwing back the insinuations against 
the bravery of my countrymen. 

Once, during the late war, while at Portsmouth, I was standing on the 
wharf, and viewing a beautiful frigate lying at anchor a short distance 
from me, an officer accosted me, by saying, ‘‘There is another of our 
frigates going to be cut in pieces by the Yankees; and,” he continued, 
“ 1 hope that they will send every such one to the bottom. Then the 
Admiralty will learn to send such ships as will be able to cope with the 
American frigates. The metal of your frigates is too heavy for such 
nutshells as these, and the Board will find it out when they have lost a 
few more of them.” The disposition and feeling of the British officers 
were very much changed after the first successes of the Americans. The 
boastful manner of Captain Dacres, and his deep humiliation, were be¬ 
fore them, and acted as a caution to these hitherto invincible heroes of 
the ocean, and they gave due allowance to the fineness of our ships and 
the skill of our marksmen. 

Before the close of the war, great caution was taken in the appoint¬ 
ment of officers known for coolness and courage, and great care taken 
in giving instructions not to engage an American vessel on anything less 
than terms of equality, The feeling of the English toward our country, 
was much changed by this war, and although many of them said that 
they had lost nothing, yet they would be as ready to admit that they had 
not gained much. 

My next trip was for St. Thomas, on board the schooner Seaflower, 
of Boston. We cleared the harbor of that city, June 11th, 1800, and 
bowled along for six days, under a smacking breeze fiom the north-west. 
Our captain was a very pleasant man, had been a sailor himself, and 
knew and appreciated the merits of every man on board. The name of 
the mate was Joshua Sweet, of Newburyport, a thorough seaman, knew 
his own place and duties, the captain’s, and the place of every man in 
the ship. Nothing of importance occurred, until we judged ourselves 
to be in the neighborhood of land, when, at daylight one morning, we 
found ourselves close along side of a French privateer of ten guns. As 
we had no means of escape or resistance, the frog-eaters took possession, 
manned her, and sent her to Gaudaloupe. The mate and myself, with 
another sailor, were put on board of the Frenchman. They were very 
polite, and permitted us to take our clothes and bedding. £he was 
bound to Point Petre, where she arrived July 5th. As soon as she came 
to anchor, a large lighter came along side, into which we were all put, 
to the number of thirty, and landed. We asked permission to step into 
a small grocery, and take a throat seasoning, which was granted, when 
we were hurried to our prison, a small stone building, about twenty feet 
square, where we were all crowded in together. There was but one 
window, which was grated on the outside, affording but a small circula¬ 
tion of air, and the heat was excessive. Here we were obliged to remain 
all night, without water, crowded to suffocation, and deprived of sleep, 
from the smallness of our prison, and the noisomeness of the air. This 
night seemed the longest that ever I had experienced, and never did I 
hail the morning with greater pleasure. At length, our horrid den was 
unlocked, and we were once more permitted to taste the sweetness of 


ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 


501 

fresh air. Nearly exhausted with thirst, I ran to the pickets, called to 
a black woman, and gave her twenty cents for a junk-bottle full of water, 
which I turned off at a draught. About eight o’clock, our provisions were 
served out for the day, and four casks of water rolled into the yard, so 
that we suffered no more from thirst. Not long after, they took us to 
Basse-Terre, and confined us in an old church, where we remained about 
twenty days before we were exchanged. 

While we were there, several prizes were brought in, and the owner 
came to the prison to hire some of the prisoners to discharge the cargoes. 
He offered us one dollar per day, and several of us went. I was sent 
to assist in discharging an English brig, laden with teas. Some of the 
chests were found broken open, and some were broken while hoisting 
them out of the hold, so that, in a short time, the tea was a foot deep 
under the main hatch. Knowing that it would be wasted, I asked per¬ 
mission to carry some of it away. In order to do this, the next morning 
I put on two pairs of pantaloons, and when I got into the hold, took oft’ 
one pair, tied up the legs, broke open a chest of the best imperial, and 
filled them up. At night. I lugged it up to my prison, emptied the flocks 
out of my bed, and put the tea into it. I continued in this way until I 
had filled my bed with about eighty-five pounds of tea. My mess-mates 
frequently laughed at me, telling me that I should u get my labor for my 
pains,” but I persisted in my course, telling them that “ we should see 
who was right.” 

At length we were exchanged, and a cartel carried us to St. Kitts, 
where we went to the American consul and received ajoe (eight dollars) 
a-piece, to support us a few days, until we could find a passage home. 
After I had found me a boarding house, I went to the American coffee¬ 
house and disposed of my tea for one dollar per pound, receiving eighty- 
five dollars, which I thought fine “ potatoes” for a prisoner of war to 
earn. 

[The next event which Nevens relates of prominent interest, is the 
narrative of his shipwreck, which occurred many years later. We here 
make the extract referred to.] 

I now thought I would take what means and stores I had, and draw 
from the bank what cash I had then deposited, and retire from a seafar¬ 
ing life forever. While making the necessary arrangements so to do, I 
fell in, at a public house at Boston, with Captain Joseph Crosby, of North 
Carolina, with whom I had sailed before the mast some years before, 
always having supposed him to be an Englishman until he made me 
acquainted with his early history. 

As was perfectly natural, we boarded for several days at the same 
house, and had frequent conversations respecting seafaring life, the 
voyages we had made, the perils we had endured, the narrow escapes 
we had met with, and, also, as to our future prospects and calculations. 
He informed me there was a brig to be sold in a few days, of one hun¬ 
dred and ninety tons burden, a good vessel, and that, if I would buy one 
third of her, he would take the rest, and we would freight her for some 
foreign port, and so make at least one more voyage together. I told him 
plainly that I had determined, in my own mind, not to go to sea any more; 
that it was a hard and dangerous life to lead, and my inclination strongly 
led me to seek for a livelihood on shore. “ But,” said he, “ make one 
voyage with me, and when we return, if you wish to buy me out, and 
own her alone, I will sell out to you; or if you wish to sell out what you 
own, I will buy you out, for I have money enough to buy the whole, but 


ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 


502 

it is too much to risk at once.” For a long time I held back. But he 
represented, in such glowing colors, the pleasures of life upon the ocean, 
that I at last consented to buy one third of the brig, for which I paid, in 
cash, two thousand dollars. After making some slight repairs, and re¬ 
painting her, we advertised for freight to some port in Europe. In the 
course of eight or ten days, we were freighted with fish for Bilboa, in 
Spain. 

Our brig was now to be manned and victualed for a foreign voyage, 
which, for the state of my funds, was rather a serious job. However, 
we made out to manage it; and as I had two hundred and fifty dollars 
left, I invested it in fish, and placed it on board. All things were now 
in readiness, and on the 26th of November, 1822, we weighed anchor 
and sailed for Spain. 

Captain Crosby and myself had thought it best not to have our vessel 
insured, as it was a time of general peace, and the owners of the cargo, 
for the same reason, concluded to get no insurance. But we made 
arrangements with the owners, that if the weather grew bad, or the times 
uncertain and dangerous, to effect an insurance on vessel and cargo. But 
after we sailed, peace continued, the weather held firm, and no insurance 
was effected. Here, then, I was, with my little world around me, my all 
invested—and the fruits of the toil, privation and care of years committed 
to a frail bark upon the treacherous wave. 

The weather continued fine, and the winds fair, until we had passed 
the Western Islands, and then heavy gales from almost every point of 
compass made our progress slow and dangerous; but no serious misfor¬ 
tune occurred till we had arrived in latitude forty-four, and longitude 
sixteen, when a very heavy gale from the south-west obliged us to lay to 
for twenty-eight hours; she rode out the gale like a gull. From evening 
till morning, the gale seemed gradually to abate in its violence. I had the 
morning watch, and the two men in my watch were on deck with me. 
The rest of the crew, with the captain, were below. About seven o’clock 
in the morning, I saw to windward a very heavy sea rolling along in the 
wake of the vessel, directly upon us. As soon as I saw the danger, I sung 
out to the men to look out for themselves, and jumped into the main rig¬ 
ging followed by the two men in my watch. When the sea struck the 
brig, it was with such force as to bury her yards in the water ; she, how¬ 
ever, partly righted, when a second sea struck her, and buried her masts 
under water. The companion-way and forecastle were now four feet 
under water. Our only hope was now to cut away the masts and clear 
the deck ; we had two sharp axes, but both were in the cabin, and could 
not be got at. All hope, therefore, of saving either vessel or cargo being 
now vain, our next thought was of our own condition. The only chance 
we had of saving our own lives, was by getting the long boat afloat. 
How to do this was now the question. After some time, I succeeded in 
cutting with my knife a piece of rigging, which I fastened around me in 
such a way, that my two companions lowered me down, and I at length 
succeeded in cutting some of the ropes, and giving her a shake, she slid 
out of the slings without filling. After some difficulty, we cleared her 
from the rigging of the vessel, got her under our lee quarter, and put 
into her two oars, and the cook’s draw bucket, these being the only arti¬ 
cles we could get at. We staid by the brig as long as we dared, and 
when we left her, we were in momentary expectation that she would go 
down. We shoved off about a cable’s length from her, and after wait¬ 
ing about half of an hour, she sunk, and with her the captain and crew 


ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 


503 

and a valuable cargo. Though we were alone upon the mighty deep, 
nearly four hundred miles from land, yet we had strong hopes of being 
picked up by some vessel, as we were in the track of all European ves¬ 
sels going to and returning from the West Indies. I therefore tried to 
comfort my companions in affliction with hopes, that I dared not indulge 
myself. But they tauntingly asked me to serve out their rations to them! 
u Provisions,” said I. “Yes! where is our bread! ourwater! our meat? 
What are we to eat? what are we to drink?” 

These were questions I could not answer; for water we had none, and 
our whole stock of provisions consisted of but three potatoes and a small 
dry fish, which were by chance in the stern of the boat. These I divided 
equally among us, and tried to encourage them, but they were frightened, 
and gave up all for lost. The weather was favorable, the wind came in 
light breezes from the north-west, and a smooth sea. We had but to 
keep the boat before the wind, and let her drift as she would, for all 
hope of reaching land was vain. The fourth day of our suffering I shall 
never forget—our distress and suffering were great; more, however, from 
thirst than hunger. A sickly, gnawing sensation was all from hunger 
that we suffered. But from thirst! reader, may you never know the 
dreadful feeling. It is beyond all imagination, and far, very far, beyond 
all description. Think of it, as you drink your fill from the bubbling 
brook or sparkling fountain: think of it as the plentiful shower descends 
to refresh and enliven nature: yes, think of it as you awake at midnight, 
parched with the thirst of burning fever, and reflection tells you that 
parching, burning, firing thirst will never be appeased until death sets 
his cold seal upon you. The eighth day, one man laid down and died 
without a groan. We laid his body in the stern sheets, to devour when 
aature could hold out no longer. Horrible alternative, to starve or devour 
dead humanity! That same night, the other man became crazy, laid down 
upon the bottom of the boat, and soon became insensible. He, too, was 
dead. And here I was alone, with the dead around me; the shoreless 
waters stretching their vast expanse around me — not an object to be 
seen, and no sound to be heard but the sullen dash of the waves upon 
the side of the boat. I was exhausted—I was discouraged—I was in 
despair. Horrible whisperings, cursings, and blasphemies sounded in 
my ears; ghastly, grinning faces seemed to mock my misery ; my imagi¬ 
nation mistook the dull hoarse murmur of the sea, for fearful shrieks and 
groans. My hunger was gone, and the dead rested as securely as though 
I had been feasting; but I was parching, drying, crackling, consuming; 
my vitals were on fire, and nature could bear no more. I sank down 
upon the stern-sheets beside the dead, and prayed for death to cure my 
pains. Soon I fell into a drowsy stupor; my pains were gone, and my fears 
removed. The days of my boyhood had returned, and I was playing in 
the flowery meadow, wandering over green fields, roaming through the 
wild wood, slaking my thirst at the sparkling rill, as it gushed from the 
moss-covered rock. Again the scene changed, and I was in the school¬ 
room of my childhood, and it seemed to me that the long, long summer 
day would never pass; as lesson after lesson was heard, and noon came 
not, the hum still went on with youthful impatience. I longed to be at 
my dinner, and, casting a furtive glance at the stern master of “ the 

birch,” I eagerly seized a tempting morsel, and-but again the scene 

changed, and I dreamed that I was by my own father’s fireside, a boy, 
spending the evening of a glorious New England thanksgiving, and had 
eaten to fullness—and as the apples, cider, and nuts went round, so did the 



ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 


504 

merry jest: and the laugh, loud and boisterous, made the old kitchen 
walls echo again. At length, the old clock told the hour of nine, and 
sleep stole gently upon me ; their voices and glee grew fainter—the fire, 
a few moments before blazing so brightly, grew dim—the lights danced 
a moment, and all was dark and still—forgetfulness and insensibility now 
held undisputed reign. 

How long I continued in this state, I know not. I was suddenly 
aroused by a sound that seemed familiar, like that of a ship going in 
stays. I got up as well as I was able, and looked around, but my eyes 
were so dim I could see nothing. Everything around me was shrouded 
in green, but no object could I distinguish. After rubbing my eyes 
some time, I saw, a little to windward of me, a large brig in the act of 
lowering a boat. The exertion had been too much for my exhausted 
powers, and I fell upon the stern-sheets again, perfectly insensible. My 
first recollection on coming to, is of finding myself sitting upon the cabin 
floor, and being fed with something warm by a French lady. I heard 
her remark, “ He has been drinking.” I could not speak for a long time. 
When I recovered the faculty of speech, my first inquiry was for my 
dead friends in the boat! They told me they had been buried, and the 
boat hoisted on deck. The captain then prepared me a glass of warm 
wine and water, after drinking of which I soon recovered my faculties 
and thoughts, though it was a long time before I recovered from the 
shock my system had received. The vessel which had picked me up 
proved to be a French brig, bound from Havana to France. 

[In the course of his life, Nevens had considerable experience on 
board of whalers, and describes, in his narrative, the different kinds of 
whales, and how they are caught.] 

It may not be improper to speak of the different kinds of whales 
usually met with, and the manner of taking them. These animals so 
closely resemble fish in their outward form and developments, that they 
are generally considered as such by the mass of mankind. Upon an 
examination of their structure, however, we shall find that they differ 
from quadrupeds only in their organs of motion. They are warm-blooded, 
and, by means of lungs, breathe atmospheric air, and that only. Like 
quadrupeds, they bring forth and suckle their young; and indeed, in all 
the details of their organization, they are the same as in this class of 
animals. The head of the whale is very large and long, forming about 
one third of the whole length of the animal. The opening of the mouth 
is of corresponding magnitude. The nostrils are situated upon the top 
of the head, and are usually denominated “blow holes;” through these 
the air finds its way to the lungs, when the whale rises to the surface of 
the water. The skin is destitute of outward covering, and beneath it is 
a covering of oily fat, called “ blubber,” from six to twelve inches in 
thickness. Their senses are not very acute, and they do not seem to 
possess much intelligence. Their ordinary speed in the water is about 
four miles an hour, which, however, they sometimes increase to twelve 
or fifteen. The common or Greenland whale is destitute of teeth, but 
instead of them the upper jaw is furnished with transverse layers of a 
horny substance, called baleen or whalebone. This species is timid 
and inactive, and yields more oil than any other—consequently, they 
are more easily captured than any other. When fully grown, its length 
is from fifty to sixty-five feet, and its circumference from thirty to forty. 
The ordinary weight is about seventy tons. They make a loud noise 
when breathing or “blowing,” and often eject water to the height of six 


ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 


505 

or eight yards, which, when seen in the distance, appears like a puff of 
smoke. They usually remain at the surface about two minutes, and 
“blow” eight or nine times, and then descend into the water, where 
they remain five, ten, and, when feeding, fifteen or twenty minutes, and 
then return to the surface to breathe. In thus rising, they ascend, at 
times, with such velocity as to throw themselves completely out of the 
water. 

The Razor or “ Fin Back” whale is the most bulky and powerful of 
its tribe. It “ blows” with such violence, that in calm weather it may be 
heard a mile. Its length is about one hundred feet. It is much more 
swift and active in its motions than any other kind, and is by no means a 
timid animal. When harpooned, or otherwise wounded, it exerts all its 
energies. It is difficult and dangerous taking them, and the small quan¬ 
tity of inferior oil it affords offers but little inducement to the whalemen 
The Spermaceti whale differs from the one described in many important 
particulars. The mouth is destitute of whalebone, but the lower jaw is 
armed, on each side, with about twenty strong, conical teeth, which shut 
into corresponding cavities in the upper jaw. The head is very large, 
with a very abrupt termination in front; the upper part of the head is 
composed of cavities, separated by cartilaginous partitions filled with oil, 
which, on cooling, crystalizes, forming the substance known as “ sper¬ 
maceti.” The males of this species are known among whalers as “ bulls,” 
and the females as “ cows.” This is the kind most sought for, and most 
valuable. 

A whale-ship, properly fitted and manned, has three or four boats, and 
from thirty to forty men on board, according to the number of boats. 
The weapons used in securing and killing the whale are but two. First 
the harpoon. This is an instrument of iron, about three feet in length, 
with an arrow-shaped head, the two branches of which have internally a 
reversed barb, like a fish-hook. When this instrument, to which a line 
is fastened, is forced, by a well-directed blow, into the fat of the whale, 
and the line drawn, the principal barb seizes the strong fibers of the 
blubber, and it cannot be withdrawn. 

The lance is used for killing the whale, when secured. It consists of 
a sp*ear of iron six feet in length, terminating in a head of steel, made 
very thin and sharp. 

These two instruments, with the lines, boats and oars, form all the 
apparatus for capturing the whale. When the ship arrives on whale- 
ground, two men are kept at mast-head continually, on the look-out—the 
boats ready to lower at a moment’s warning. 

The whale is discovered sometimes by the “spout,” and sometimes 
by the breach of the waves over it. When the “ mast-head ” sings out, 
“ There she blows,” the captain asks, “ Where away ? ” When it is ascer¬ 
tained to be a “ sperm whale,” the word is, “ All hands on deck, see all 
clear for lowering the boats.” All is now bustle and excitement. Each 
man is interested, as his wages depend upon the success of the cruise. 
The “ lay” is one barrel of oil out of such a number. The master may 
have, perhaps, one in twenty; mate, one in fifty ; ship’s keeper one in 
one hundred; boat steerer one in one hundred and fifty ; and a common 
hand, one in two hundred, according to the “ lay” on which they engaged. 
The captain supplies all their wants while out, from the ship’s stores, 
and it is deducted from their wages when they arrive home. Thus every 
one is anxious of success. When the ship arrives within about half a 
mile of the whale, she is hove-to, and the ship’s keeper goes to the 


506 


ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 


mast-head with a spy-glass, to watch the operation, and give directions 
to the man at the helm how to work the ship. The boats being lowered, 
each with its own crew, row for the whale. Care and skill are requisite 
to approach the whale before it has its “blow” out. The boat which is 
nearest the whale, approaches the whale at the right moment, and some 
expert workman throws the harpoon, and “ fastens” to the whale. Some¬ 
times, when the whale has done blowing, and is about going down, the 
harpoon is thrown a distance of ten yards, and made to “ fasten.” But 
usually the boat is run directly upon the animal, and the harpoon buried 
in its back. This is a critical moment, and requires presence of mind 
in an officer, and perfect obedience in the boat’s crew. The instant she 
is fast, the word is, “ Stern all.” The boat now moves rapidly astern till 
out of the reach of the fluke or tail of the whale. The tail of the whale 
lying horizontally or flat in the water, enables him to dive almost instan¬ 
taneously and with great power. When the whale feels the wound made 
by the harpoon, it makes a convulsive effort to escape. This is a moment 
of danger, the men and boats are exposed to instant destruction from the 
violent blow of the ponderous tail. The whale now goes down, some¬ 
times to the depth of a mile, and the utmost care and order are requisite 
on the part of the crew, while the line is running out. Should the line 
meet with any obstruction while running, the boat would be instantly 
drawn down. Their stay down is from five to forty minutes, the longer 
time they are down the greater their exhaustion when they rise, owing 
to the pressure of the water upon them. When it rises, a second har¬ 
poon is fastened to it, and then the lance is used for killing him. The 
officer of the boat goes forward to do this; the lance, which has a long 
shank of wood, is forced into the vitals just back of the fin. This being 
done two or three times, the whale is seen to be dying by the blood min¬ 
gled with his spout, and, after a short time, rolls over upon the side or 
back, and the job is done. 

A signal is now made, and the ship comes along side, the boats are 
hoisted, and a strong chain, called the “ fluke-chain,” is put round the 
tail, a little above where it begins to spread. A good “ stiff throat sea¬ 
soning” is now expected by every man, and willingly given by the offi¬ 
cers. Two men now get upon the whale, each armed with a straight, 
sharp blubber-spade, with which they begin to cut near the fin. They 
cut lengthways of the whale about five feet, then, standing face to face, 
they cut round, as far as they can, down on the side. A hole is now 
made through this “blanket-piece,” near the end, into which a blubber- 
hook, weighing about sixty pounds, is forced; this hook,being connected 
with a very strong purchase and fall, the end of which is fastened to the 
windlass, then the word is, “ Haul taut.” Eighteen or twenty hands, with 
handspikes, now heave away at the windlass, and the blanket-piece begins 
to rise, peeling off’ from the carcass as fast as the men on the whale can 
cut. As they cut spirally, and the whale rolls in the water and fluke- 
ropes, the blanket continues to rise till it reaches the mainyard, and then 
another hole is cut down near the whale, into which another hook is fas¬ 
tened, and the operation goes on till the blubber is all in. These blan¬ 
ket-pieces are swung in over the main-hatch and lowered into the blubber 
room, where they are cut up into thin slices for the kettle. The head is 
now cut from the body, and divided into two pieces, called the “ case ” 
and the “junk,” the last of which is brought on deck and lashed; the 
“ case” is then raised as high as the plankshire of the ship, and a large 
hole cut in it, from which head matter is taken, from ten to fifteen barrels 


ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 507 

in quantity. The “junk,” when tried out, goes in with this, and it is 
called head oil, or “ spermaceti.” 

Thus the whale is “ cut in.” It now has to be “tried out,” and even 
the head oil must be boiled, to keep it from spoiling. The scraps made 
in trying out the blubber are used to feed the fires, and after being first 
kindled, they require no other fuel. 

The oil is then stowed away, where it remains, unless some of the 
casks leak, which is discovered by the pumps. If they bring up oil and 
water, the whole of it has to be trimmed, that is, overhauled, and the 
leaky casks taken out, emptied, and repaired, and the whole stowed away 
again. 

[Captain Scoresby, in his works on the Whale Fishery, gives some 
interesting anecdotes illustrative of the perils and disasters to which 
whalemen are subject, some of which we here annex, in addition to what 
Nevens has given us of the peculiarities of this occupation.] 

The most extensive source of danger to the whale-fisher, when actively 
engaged in his occupation, arises from the object of his pursuit. Except¬ 
ing when it has young under its protection, the whale generally exhibits 
remarkable timidity of character. A bird perching on its back alarms it; 
hence, the greater part of the accidents which happen in the course of 
its capture, must be attributed to adventitious circumstances on the part 
of the w’hale, or to mismanagement or fool-hardiness on the part of the 
fishers. 

A harpooner belonging to the Henrietta, of Whitby, when engaged in 
lancing a whale, into which he had previously struck a harpoon, incau¬ 
tiously cast a little line under his feet, that he had just hauled into the 
boat, after it had been drawn out by the fish. A painful stroke of his 
lance induced the whale to dart suddenly downward; his line began to 
run out from beneath his feet, and in an instant caught him, by a turn, 
round his body. He had but just time to cry out, “ Clear away the line! ” 
“Oh, dear!” when he was almost cut asunder, dragged overboard, and 
never seen afterward. The line was cut at the moment, but without 
avail. The fish descended a considerable depth, and died, from 
whence it was drawn to the surface by the lines connected with it, and 
secured. 

While the ship Resolution navigated an open lake of water, in the 
eighty-first degree of north latitude, during a keen frost and strong north 
wind, on the 2d of June, 1806, a whale appeared, and a boat put off* in 
pursuit. On its second visit to the surface of the sea it was harpooned. 
A convulsive heave of the tail, which succeeded the wound, struck the 
boat at the stern, and by its reaction projected the boat-steerer overboard. 
As the line in a moment dragged the boat beyond his reach, the crew 
threw some of their oars toward him for his support, one of which he 
fortunately seized. The ship and boats being at a considerable distance, 
and the fast-boat being rapidly drawn away from him, the harpooner cut 
the line, with the view of rescuing him from his dangerous situation. Bu 
no sooner was this act performed, than, to their extreme mortification, they 
discovered, that in consequence of some oars being thrown toward their 
floating comrade, and others being broken or unshipped by the blow from 
the fish, one oar only remained, with which, owing to the force of the 
wind, they tried in vain to approach him. A considerable period elapsed 
before any boat from the ship could afford him assistance, though the men 
strained every nerve for the purpose. At length, when they reached 
him, he was found with his arms stretched over an oar, almost deprived 


ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 


508 

of sensation. On his arrival at the ship, he was in a deplorable condition. 
His clothes were frozen like mail, and his hair constituted a helmet of 
ice. He was immediately conveyed into the cabin, his clothes taken 
off, his limbs and body dried and well rubbed, and a cordial administered 
to him, which he drank. A dry shirt and stockings were then put upon 
him, and he was laid in the captain’s bed. After a few hours’ sleep, he 
awoke and appeared considerably restored, but complained of a painful 
sensation of cold. He was, therefore, removed to his own berth, and 
one of his messmates ordered to lie on each side of him, whereby the 
diminished circulation of the blood was accelerated, and the animal heat 
restored. The shock on his constitution, however, was greater than was 
anticipated. He recovered in the course of a few days, so as to be able 
to engage in his ordinary pursuits; but many months elapsed before his 
countenance exhibited its wonted appearance of health. 

The Aimwell, of Whitby, while cruising the Greenland seas, in the 
year 1810, had boats in chase of whales on the 26th of May. One of 
them was harpooned. But instead of sinking immediately on receiving 
the wound, as is the most usual manner of the whale, this individual 
only dived for a moment, and rose again beneath the boat, struck it in 
the most vicious manner with its fins and tail, stove it, upset it, and then 
disappeared. The crew, seven in number, got on the bottom of the 
boat; but the unequal action of the lines, which for some time remained 
entangled with the boat, rolled it occasionally over, and thus plunged the 
crew repeatedly into the water. Four of them, after each immersion, 
recovered themselves, and clung to the boat; but the other three, one of 
whom was the only person acquainted with the art of swimming, were 
drowned before assistance could arrive. The four men on the boat 
being rescued and conveyed to the ship, the attack on the whale was 
continued, and two more harpoons struck. But the whale, irritated 
instead of being enervated by its wounds, recommenced its furious con¬ 
duct. The sea was in a foam. Its tail and fins were in awful play; and, 
in a short time, harpoon after harpoon drew out, the fish was loosened 
from its entanglements, and escaped. 

In the fishery of 1812, the Henrietta, of Whitby, suffered a similar 
loss. A fish, which was struck very near the ship, by a blow of its tail 
stove a small hole in the boat’s bow. Every individual shrinking from 
the side on which the blow was impressed, aided the influence of the 
stroke, and upset the boat. They all clung to it while it was bottom up; 
but the line having got entangled among the thwarts, suddenly drew the 
boat under water, and with it part of the crew. Excessive anxiety among 
the people in the ship occasioned delay in sending assistance; so that, 
when the first boat arrived at the spot, two survivors only, out of six 
men, were found. 

During a fresh gale of wind, in the season of 1809, one of the Reso¬ 
lution’s harpooners struck a sucking whale. Its mother being near, all 
the other boats were disposed around, with the hope of entangling it. 
The old whale pursued a circular route round its cub, and was followed 
by the boats; but its velocity was so considerable, that they were unable 
to keep pace with it. Being in the capacity of harpooner on this occa¬ 
sion myself, I proceeded to the chase, after having carefully marked the 
proceedings of the fish. I selected a situation, in which I conceived the 
whale would make his appearance, and was in the act of directing my 
crew 1o cease rowing, when a terrible blow was struck on the boat. The 
whale I never saw, but the effect of the blow was loo important to be 


ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 


509 

overlooked. About fifteen square feet of the bottom of the boat were 
driven in; it filled, sunk, and upset in a moment. Assistances was provi¬ 
dentially at hand, so that we were all taken up without injury, after being 
but a few minutes in the water. The whale escaped ; the boat’s lines 
fell out and were lost, but the boat was recovered. 

A remarkable instance of the power which the whale possesses in its 
tail, was exhibited, within my own observation, in the year 1807. On 
the 29th of May, a whale was harpooned by an officer belonging to the 
Resolution. It descended a considerable depth, and, on its reappear¬ 
ance, evinced an uncommon degree of irritation. It made such a dis¬ 
play of its fins and tail, that few of the crew were hardy enough to 
approach it. The captain, observing their timidity, called a boat, and 
himself struck a second harpoon. Another boat immediately followed, 
and unfortunately advanced too far. The tail was again reared into the 
air, in a terrific attitude. The impending blow was evident—the har- 
pooner, who was directly underneath, leaped overboard, and the next 
moment the threatened stroke was impressed on the center of the boat, 
which it buried in the water. Happily no one was injured. The har- 
pooner, who leaped overboard, escaped certain death by the act — 
the tail having struck the very spot on which he stood. The effects of 
the blow were astonishing. The keel was broken, the gunwales, and 
every plank, excepting two, were cut through, and it was evident that 
the boat would have been completely divided, had not the tail struck 
directly upon a coil of lines. The boat was rendered useless. 

Instances of disasters of this kind, occasioned by blows from the 
whale, could be adduced in great numbers — cases of boats being 
destroyed by a single stroke of the tail are not unknown—instances of 
boats having been stove or upset, and their crews wholly or in part 
drowned, are not unfrequent—and several cases of whales having made 
a regular attack upon every boat which came near them, dashed some in 
pieces, and killed or drowned some of the people in them, have occurred 
within a few years, even under my own observation. 

The Dutch ship Gort-Moolen, commanded by Cornelius Gerard Ouwe- 
kaas, with a cargo of seven fish, was anchored in Greenland, in the year 
1660. The captain, perceiving a whale ahead of his ship, beckoned his 
attendants, and threw himself into a boat. He was the first to approach 
the whale, and was fortunate enough to harpoon it before the arrival of 
the second boat, which was on the advance. Jacques Yienkes, who had 
the direction of it, joined his captain immediately afterward, and prepared 
to make a second attack on the fish, when it should remount again to the 
surface. At the moment of its ascension, the boat of Vienkes happening, 
unfortunately, to be perpendicularly above it, was so suddenly and forci¬ 
bly lifted up by a stroke of the head of the whale, that it was dashed to 
pieces before the harpooner could discharge his weapon. Yienkes flew 
along with the pieces of the boat, and fell upon the back of the animal. 
This intrepid seaman, who still retained his weapon in his grasp, har¬ 
pooned the whale on which he stood; and, by means of the harpoon and 
and the line, which he never abandoned, he steadied himself firmly upon 
the fish, notwithstanding his hazardous situation, and regardless of a 
considerable wound that he received in his leg, in his fall along with the 
fragments of the boat. All the efforts of the other boats to approach 
the whale, and deliver the harpooner, were futile. The captain, not 
seeing any other method of saving his unfortunate companion, who was 
in some way entangled with the line, called to him to cut it with his 


ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 


510 

knife, and betake himself to swimming. Vienkes, embarrassed and 
disconcerted as he was, tried in vain to follow this council. His knife was 
in the pocket of his drawers, and, being unable to support himself with 
one hand, he could not get it out. The whale, meanwhile, continued 
advancing along the surface of the water with great rapidity, but fortu¬ 
nately never attempted to dive. While his comrades despaired of his 
life, the harpoon by which he held at length disengaged itself from the 
body of the whale. Vienkes, being thus liberated, did not fail to take 
advantage of this circumstance; he cast himself into the sea, and, by 
swimming, endeavored to regain the boats which continued the pursuit 
of the whale. When his shipmates perceived him struggling with the 
waves, they redoubled their exertions. They reached him just as his 
strength was exhausted, and had the happiness of rescuing this adven¬ 
turous harpooner from his perilous situation. 

Captain Lyons, of the Raith, of Leith, while prosecuting the whale- 
fishery on the Labrador coast, in the season of 1802, discovered a large 
whale at a short distance from the ship. Four boats were dispatched in 
pursuit, and two of them succeeded in approaching it so closely together 
that two harpoons were struck at the same moment. The fish descended 
a few fathoms in the direction of another of the boats, which was on the 
advance, rose accidentally beneath it, struck it with his head, and threw 
the boat, men and apparatus about fifteen feet in the air. It was inverted 
by the stroke, and fell into the water with its keel upward. All the 
people were picked up alive by the fourth boat, which was just at hand, 
excepting one man, who, having got entangled in the boat, fell beneath 
it, and was unfortunately drowned. The fish was soon afterward killed. 

Perhaps one of the most remarkable instances of the destruction of a 
vessel by a whale, is that of the ship Essex, which sailed from Nantucket 
about the year 1820. She was commanded by Captain Pollard, and had 
entered the Pacific Ocean, where she was employed some time in catch¬ 
ing whales. One day the seamen harpooned a young whale. In this 
species, the affection of the mother toward its young is very strong, as 
was evinced in a remarkable manner on this occasion. When the mother 
of the young whale found that her progeny was killed, she went to some 
distance from the ship, and then, rushing through the water, came against 
the stern of the vessel with the greatest violence. So tremendous was 
the force of the shock, that several of the timbers were loosened, and 
the vessel pitched and reeled on the water, as if struck by a whirlwind. 
Nor was the whale satisfied with this. Again she went to the distance 
of more than a mile, and then, shooting through the waves with incredi¬ 
ble swiftness, came like a thunderbolt upon the bow of the vessel. The 
timbers were instantly beaten in, and the ship began to fill with water. 
Scarcely had the crew sufficient time to get into their boat before she 
went down. In this sudden and frightful situation, the poor seamen now 
found themselves. They were upon the wide-heaving and perilous ocean, 
in an open boat, and far from any land. If the whale had come upon 
them in the condition they were now in, they must have inevitably 
perished. But they saw no more of the monster. Captain Pollard and 
his men for several days suffered severe hardships from the weather, 
and from a want of water and food. At length, the delightful vision of 
another ship broke upon their sight. They were all taken on board, 
and finally reached their native country in safety. 

In 1822, two boats belonging to the ship Baffin went in pursuit of a 
whale. John Carr was harpooner and commander of one of them. 


ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 


511 

The whale they pursued led them into a vast shoal of his own species; 
they were so numerous that their blowing was incessant, and they be¬ 
lieved that they did not see fewer than a hundred. Fearful of alarm¬ 
ing them without striking any, they remained for awhile motionless. At 
last, one rose near Carr’s boat, and he approached, and, fatally for him¬ 
self, harpooned it. When he struck, the fish was approaching the boat; 
and, passing very rapidly, jerked the line out of its place over the stern, 
and threw it upon the gunwale. Its pressure, in this unfavorable posi¬ 
tion, so careened the boat, that, the side was pulled under water, and it 
began to fill. In this emergency, Carr, who was a brave, active man, 
seized the line, and endeavored to relieve the boat, by restoring it to its 
place; but, by some circumstance which was never accounted for, a turn 
of the line flew over his arm, dragged him overboard in an instant, and 
drew him under the water, never more to rise. So sudden was the 
accident, that only one man, who was watching him, saw what had hap¬ 
pened; so that, when the boat righted, which it immediately did, though 
half full of water, the whole crew, on looking round, inquired what had 
become of Carr. It is impossible to imagine a death more awfully sud¬ 
den and unexpected. The invisible bullet could not have effected more 
instantaneous destruction. The velocity of the whale, at its first descent, 
is from thirteen to fifteen feet per second. Now, as this unfortunate 
man was adjusting the line at the water’s very edge, where it must have 
been perfectly tight, owing to its obstruction in running out of the boat, 
the interval between the fastening the line about him, and his disappear¬ 
ance, could not have exceeded the third part of a second of time, for in 
one second only he must have been dragged ten or twelve feet deep. 
Indeed, he had not time for the least exclamation; and the person who 
saw his removal, observed that it was so exceeding quick, that, though 
his eye was upon him at the moment, he could scarcely distinguish his 
figure as he disappeared. 

As soon as the crew recovered from their consternation, they applied 
themselves to the needful attention which the lines required. A second 
harpoon was struck, from the accompanying boat, on the raising of the 
whale to the surface, and some lances were applied, but this melancholy 
occurrence had cast such a damp on all present, that they became timid 
and inactive in their subsequent duties. The whale, when nearly 
exhausted, was allowed to remain some minutes unmolested, till, having 
recovered some degree of energy, it made a violent effort, and tore itself 
away from both harpoons. The exertions of the crews thus proved 
fruitless, and were attended with serious loss. 

[We again skip over many years in Nevens’ history. In the meantime, 
he had arisen to the command of a vessel, and had frequently sailed to the 
remotest parts of the world. He was now an old man: age, with its 
infirmities, had begun to do their work upon his constitution, and he had 
made up his mind to go to sea no more, but to gather his little all 
together, and settle down, he did not care much where. The relation 
of the subsequent misfortunes that befell the honest-hearted old sailor, 
and his return to the scenes of his boyhood, after the lapse of nearly 
half a century, is very affecting.] 

Having some business to transact at Providence, I took stage, and, in 
a tremendous snow-storm, landed in that place, at the house of an old 
acquaintance, where I was received as one from the dead. The storm 
continued for several days, I was forced to stay longer in the place than 
I at first intended. I now wrote to Mr. Stevens, my agent in Boston, 


ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 


512 

requesting him to draw what funds 1 had from the bank, and forward the 
same to me at Providence. But day after day passed on, and I heard 
nothing from him, and began to grow rather uneasy, when his son entered 
my room, one evening, with the money. His father delayed sending it, 
until a safer opportunity than by mail should occur, when unexpected 
business called the young man to Providence. I now found myself in 
possession of thirteen hundred and twenty-one dollars. 

It was necessary for me to lay out immediately between two and three 
hundred dollars, for clothing and other necessary articles. Having thus 
supplied my most pressing necessities, I concluded to go to Boston, and 
find out if any of my father’s family were yet alive, having heard nothing 
from any of them for most twenty years. I therefore began to look about 
myself for some kind of conveyance. Here were the railroad cars, 
which run from Providence to Boston weekly, but as the snow was very 
deep, I was told that it was dangerous traveling in them, as they were 
likely to run off the track, on account of the snow. As I was ignorant 
about them, J did not know but this might be the case, and as a sailor 
always feels safest on the water, I engaged a passage on board a small 
schooner. I thought, as the weather had now become moderate and 
pleasant, there would be little risk in so short a voyage. 

I asked the captain when he should sail. He told me he was all ready, 
and waited only for the tide. I accordingly lost no time in getting my 
baggage on board, together with many curiosities, and some valuable 
articles, which I had collected in the course of my seafaring life. All 
things being now ready, we sailed down river, with a fair wind and plea¬ 
sant sky. The next day, however, the wind shifted round to the east¬ 
ward, while we were off' Block Island, and there came on a fog so dense 
that for some time we could not see the length of the schooner, and then 
the fog would lift a little, and give us a momentary glimpse of our bear¬ 
ings. About two o’clock in the afternoon, it looked so likely for squalls, 
that the captain said he would put back and go into Newport, and wait 
for fair weather. We then wore the vessel round, and hauled her close 
on the wind, so as to weather the north-east point of the island. At this 
critical moment, a squall struck us, and being closer in to the shore than 
we thought, for we were not able to weather the point, the sea was 
running very high, and before we were aware of our danger, the vessel 
struck, with a tremendous crash, upon a reef of rocks. She rebounded 
and struck the second time, and in a moment, seemingly, she was full of 
water. The sea now broke over us with great fury, and washed our deck 
from one end of the schooner to the other. At this moment, a pilot-boat, 
which was driven in by the gale, came near to us, and seeing our help¬ 
less condition, the pilot sung out to us to stand ready to jump on board, 
one at a time, when the boat should come near enough to enable us 
so to do. 

The pilot-boat tacked and stood off a little, then wore round and came 
close to the weather-quarter of the schooner, when I jumped and caught 
by the rigging. She then tacked again, and wore round in the same 
way, until all were taken from the wreck. The boat now stood away for 
Newport, and before we had sailed five rods from the schooner, she 
went down. When we hauled into the wharf, we were as wet as drowned 
rats, though our clothes were fast freezing to us, and it was piercingly 
cold. We all went to a public house, and stopped that night, though 
sleep was a stranger that I could not woo to my pillow. I spent the’ 
night in reviewing my past life, and the strange reverses I had met with, 


ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 


513 


and now the scanty pittance I had saved with so much care, to build my 
hopes in old age upon, was swallowed up in a moment, and I was left 
destitute in the world. Before retiring to my bed, I took everything 
from my pockets. I had a knife, a piece of tobacco, the key of my 
trunk, in which my thousand dollars were snugly laid away, which was 
now in the bottom of the ocean, about a dollar in small change, and one 
poor, solitary five dollar bill. Here was the whole, my all — my forty 
years of toil, of danger, of strife with the elements, of hardship and 
suffering, for all this I had six dollars to show. The bill was in my 
pocket by mere accident, as I put all my money into my trunk, as I sup¬ 
posed, excepting a little change for present use, which was loose in my 
pocket. The next morning, I concluded to take the stage for Swanzey, 
and from thence I traveled on foot to Taunton. It was a very cold day; 
the whole face of the country was covered with snow; the roads were all 
ice, which the horses’ feet had so cut up as to make traveling very loose and 
difficult. However, I arrived at Taunton very much fatigued in body, and 
discouraged at heart; I had hardly money enough to carry me to Boston, 
and when I got there I was not certain of finding a soul living that cared 
anything for me. Indeed, I never, in my moments of greatest peril, felt 
so cast down as at this time; my health was gone, my constitution broken 
down, my friends dead, as I supposed, myself without means to gain a 
living. I sat down and wept like a child. But again, the thought came 
to mind, that I had nothing to reproach myself with; I had not foolishly 
squandered my money in drunkenness and riotous living, but it had been 
taken from me by the “ hand that tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.” 
I had ever adhered to the strictest principles of temperance and morality, 
and I know not that I have ever spent a dollar to feed an unworthy 
appetite, or gratify a wrong passion. I had now 

“ No wife nor babes to hold me here, 

No cottage in the wilderness.” 

It was about dark, when I stopped at Mr. Willmouth’s tavern in Taun¬ 
ton. I had traveled from daylight till this time without eating a mouthful 
of anything, fearing to spend any money, lest I should not have enough 
to bear my expenses to Boston. I was, or had been, well acquainted 
with the landlord, and was received as an old friend. After supper I 
went to bed, but it was a long time before I could rest. 

The scenes of peril, hardship and suffering through which I had recently 
passed, had made so deep an impression on my mind, that my imagina¬ 
tion was wandering among them still. At one time, I was in the crater of 
a volcano, and as I was reposing my wearied limbs, I sunk into a dreamy 
state of forgetfulness, from which I was suddenly awakened by the 
rumbling of the earth, and I saw, with terror, smoke and flame issuing 
from the cracks and fissures in the rocks around me. In alarm, I made 
an effort to escape from the fearful spot, when I found that I was bound 
down by numerous yellow silken cords, and huge spiders were running 
over me. A tremendous crash changed the “ spirit of my dreams,” and 
I found myself sinking in the fathomless ocean. The boiling flood was 
gurgling in my ears, huge, slimy monsters were all around me, and eyes 
of fire seemed peering at me from the dark caverns, while cold, serpen¬ 
tine coils seemed to draw their folds with deathly tightness around me. 
Again the scene changed, and I was in an open boat upon a wide 
expanse of waters; the boat was filled with the dead, and huge monsters 
of the deep, with fiery eye-balls, dashed along the main, scenting their 
33 


ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 


514 

prey; they seemed to threaten my frail bark with instant destruction. 
To divert them from their fearful purpose, I had to feed out to them my 
dead companions. At length, the dead were all fed out, and still I was 
followed by a fearful-looking monster, who, with wide-extended jaws, 
seized the boat, and in an instant crushed it to atoms. With a shriek of 
agony I made one spring, and I awoke. I was lying upon the floor of 
my chamber, bedewed with a cold sweat of agony. At this moment, 
the landlord entered the room with a light, to learn what the trouble was. 
I told him what a fearful dream I had, and he said he would prepare me 
something that would make me sleep. He left the room, and, in a few 
minutes, returned with an opiate, which I drank, and in five minutes my 
senses were steeped in forgetfulness. I knew nothing more till morning, 
when the landlord entered my room, and, after much shaking, aroused me 
to a sense of my situation. After breakfast, I went to the depot, to ascer¬ 
tain what time the train started for Boston, and what the fare would be. 
I found that I must be on hand at three o’clock in the afternoon, and 
ready in disposition to fork over nine shillings of my little fortune, for 
my passage. After dinner I called for my bill, when Mr. Willmouth told 
me he asked nothing, and should be happy to have me stay with him 
longer. At three o’clock, I was at the depot, and took my place in the 
cars, and about dark arrived at Boston. The “ shot in my locker ” had 
now got so low that I could not afford to go to a public house; and I began 
to cast about in my mind, to know where to stow myself away for the night. 
Seeing a bright light in a large wooden building, I went in, and found it 
to be an Irish boarding-house. I found I could have lodgings for twelve 
and a half cents, and a supper for a shilling. I slept soundly that night, 
and early the next morning I went down to a packet bound to Portland, 
Captain Dyer. I asked the fare to Portland. “ Three dollars,” said the 
captain. But when informed of my situation, he offered to carry me for 
two dollars. I accordingly paid my fare, and went on shore again, after 
learning the time he would sail. I then went to see if I could find my 
old boarding place. But the house was torn down, and in its place stood 
a large brick store. I entered the store, and asked the man in attend¬ 
ance if he knew where the family was who formerly resided there. He 
said the woman had been dead eight years, and he knew nothing about 
the rest of the people. 

I then went down to the packet, and about twelve o’clock at night, we 
sailed for Portland. The harbor was slightly frozen over, so that we 
were two hours getting down as far as the castle. We had a fine pas¬ 
sage, and the next day got into Portland. Captain Dyer invited me to 
dine with him. After dinner, he made me a present of half a dollar, as 
did one of the passengers. I now went out into the market, to see if J 
could find any person from Danville. As I was passing down one of the 
streets, I went into a shop to purchase some tobacco, and observing the 
kind, benevolent look of the shop-keeper, I made bold to ask him if he 
was acquainted with any people from that place. He said he was not; 
but there was a man “higher up,” whose name was James True, who 
:had married his wife in Danville, and could probably give me ny inform¬ 
ation I desired. I soon found True, and found he was well acquainted 
with my father’s family. He told me that my father and oldest brother 
had both been dead several years. “But,” said he, “ your mother is 
still living, and that is some consolation to you.” 

I felt that it was indeed so. “ Have I any other relations?” I asked, 
with anxiety. 


ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 


515 


“ Yes,” said he, “ you have three brothers and three sisters.” 

“ But,” said I, “ I never had so many to my knowledge.” 

“ Well,” said he, “ you have to my knowledge ; after you went to sea 
you had one brother and three sisters born, who were alive and well the 
last time I heard from them.” 

I now made True fully acquainted with my adventures and present 
situation. He told me to give myself no uneasiness — that he would let 
me have money to bear my expenses home, and find me a passage in the 
stage. He told me that one of my brothers kept a tavern in Poland, and 
my mother lived with him. He said that he would see that the stage called 
for me the next morning at sunrise, and I returned to the boarding-house. 
I went to bed at an early hour, that I might be up in time for the stage 
the next morning. My slumbers were quiet and refreshing, and I was 
up at the first sign of the morning, before the family were any of them 
moving, and had just got out of my chamber, when up drove the stage, 
and 1 was forced to start immediately and without my breakfast. It was 
one of the coldest days I ever knew, and I suffered much from the cold; 
still my head was continually out of the stage, I was so anxious to fix 
my eye upon some familiar object; but it was of no use. I had been 
gone so long, and the face of the country had undergone such changes 
and alterations, and being covered with snow, no spot looked familiar, 
or awakened any remembrance of the past. 

About nine o’clock, we arrived at what is now called Gray corner, and 
after taking some refreshment we proceeded to New Gloucester. Here 
some things upon which my eye rested awakened my sleeping memory, 
and I began to feel that I was getting on “old ground” again. We 
arrived at the house of my brother, in Poland, about half past eleven 
o’clock. My brother, who was in the stable, saw me when I entered 
the house, and soon came in, He was much changed in his personal 
appearance, and instead of the light, elastic form he once possessed, he 
was now a stout, portly looking man. Indeed, 1 could hardly discover 
anything about him that reminded me of former days. As it was a very 
cold day, I was much chilled with my ride, and it was some time before 
I had got “thawed out,” so as to be any ways comfortable. Finding 
that he had no recollection of me, I entered into conversation with him 
upon the state of the weather, badness of the roads, business of the 
country, and such topics as are commonly first broached between 
strangers. After some time, I asked him if he had ever followed the 
sea. He answered that he never had. “But,” said I, “there is one of 
your name, who is a seafaring man, that went from these parts some¬ 
where.” “ Yes,” said he, “ I had a brother William, who followed the 
sea for a great many years; but as I have heard nothing from him for a 
number of years, I suppose he must be dead—probably lost at sea.” 

During this conversation, I could occasionally see something that 
reminded me of “ by-gone days.” Some peculiar glance of the eye or 
turn of the head assured me that I was indeed holding conversation with 
my own brother. He had several times, while I was talking, fixed his 
eyes keenly and earnestly upon me, and then, as if disappointed, again 
dropped them. I could govern my feelings no longer, and burst into 
tears. He looked at me in much surprise,and suddenly exclaimed, “Is 
it possible? Is this William?” I told him we were brothers, and we 
were instantly in each other’s arm3. “ This is an unexpected happinesss,” 
said he. “ I will call the family,” he continued, and left the room. In 
a few minutes an old lady came in, exclaiming, “Where is William?” 


ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 


516 

It is useless for me to attempt to portray the scene that followed my 
recognition. For more than forty years I had been roaming, and now 
returned, an old man, to crave again a mother’s blessing. That mother 
was now about ninety years of age, and is still living. Many were the 
questions that were asked and answered that night. I began to inquire 
after my old associates—the companions of my boyhood. But they were 
gone, some to the west, and some to the south. Some few had settled 
down in that vicinity, while many had 44 gone to that bourne from whence 
no traveler returns.” I staid in Poland a few weeks, and then left for 
the eastward, to visit other relations, with whom I am still living. And 
now, kind reader, I must take my leave of you. I feel that I am an old 
man, fast approaching my narrow resting-place, and my desire is that 
my last hours may be peaceful. 


FLOGGING SCENE ON AN AMERICAN MERCHANT VESSEL. 

44 For several days, the captain seemed very much out of humor. 
Nothing went right or fast enough for him. He quarreled with the cook, 
and threatened to flog him for throwing wood on deck; and had a dispute 
with the mate about reefing a Spanish burton; the mate saying that he 
was right, and had been taught how to do it by a man who was a sailor. 

This the captain took in dudgeon, and they were at sword’s points at 
once. But his displeasure was chiefly turned against a large, heavy- 
molded fellow from the Middle States, who was called Sam. This man 
hesitated in his speech, and was rather slow in his motions, but was a 
pretty good sailor, and always seemed to do his best; but the captain 
took a dislike to him, thought he was surly and lazy; and 44 if you once 
give a dog a bad name,” as the sailor phrase is, 44 he may as well jump 
overboard.” The captain found fault with everything this man did, and 
hazed him for dropping a marline-spike from the main-yard, where he 
was at work. This, of course, was an accident, but it was set down 
against him. The captain was on board all day Friday, and everything 
went on hard and disagreeably. 44 The more you drive a man the less 
he will do,” was as true with us as with any other people. We worked 
late Friday night, and were turned to, early Saturday morning. About 
ten o’clock, the captain ordered our new officer, Russell, who, by this 
time, had become thoroughly disliked by all the crew, to get the gig 
ready to take us ashore. John, the Swede, was sitting in the boat along 
side, and Russell and myself were standing by the main hatchway, wait¬ 
ing for the captain, who was down in the hold, where the crew were 
at work, when we heard his voice raised in violent dispute with some¬ 
body, whether it was with the mate or one of the crew I could not tell; 
and then came blows and scuffling. I ran to the side and beckoned to 
John, who came up, and we leaned down the hatchway; and though we 
could see no one, yet we knew that the captain had the advantage, for 
his voice was loud and clear. 

44 You see your condition! You see your condition! Will you ever 
give me any more of your jaw? ” No answer, and then came wrestling 
and heaving, as though the man was trying to turn him. 44 You may as 
well keep still, for I have got you,” said the captain. Then came the 
question, 44 Will you ever give me any more of your jaw?” 



ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 517 

u I never gave you any,” said Sam; for it was his voice that we heard, 
though low and half choked. 

u That’s not what I asked you. Will you ever be impudent to me 
again?” 

“ I never have been, sir,” said Sam. 

“ Answer my question, or I ’ll make a spread eagle of you! I ’ll flog 
you, by G—.” 

“ 1 ’m no negro slave,” said Sam. 

“Then I’ll make you one,” said the captain, and he came to the 
hatchway and sprang on deck, threw off his coat, and, rolling up his 

sleeves, called out to the mate, “ Seize that man up, Mr. A-! Seize 

him up! Make a spread eagle of him! I ’ll teach you all who is master 
aboard!” 

The crew and officers followed the master up the hatchway, and, after 
repeated orders, the mate laid hold of Sam, who made no resistance,’ 
and carried him to the gangway. 

u What are you going to flog that man for?” said John, the Swede, to 
the captain. 

Upon hearing this, the captain turned upon him, but knowing him to 
be quick and resolute, he ordered the steward to bring the irons, and, 
calling Russell to help him, went up to John. 

“Let me alone,” said John; “I am willing to be put in irons. You 
need not use any force,” and putting out his hands, the captain slipped 
the irons on, and sent him aft to the quarter-deck. Sam was by this 
time seized up, as it is called, that is, placed against the shrouds, with 
his wrists made fast to them, his jacket off, and his back exposed. The 
captain stood on the break of the deck, a few feet from him, and a little 
raised, so as to have a good swing at him, and held in his hand the bight 
of a thick, heavy rope. The officers stood round, and the crew grouped 
together in the waist. 

All these things made me sick and almost faint, angry and excited as 
I was. A man, a human being made in God’s likeness, fastened up and 
flogged like a beast! A man, too, whom I had lived with and eaten with 
for months, and knew almost as well as a brother. The first and almost 
uncontrollable impulse was resistance. But what was to be done ? The 
time for it had gone by. The two best men were fast, and there were 
only two beside myself and a small boy, of ten or twelve years of age. 
And then there were, beside the captain, three officers, steward, agent, 
and clerk. But beside the numbers, what is there for sailors to do? If 
they resist, it is mutiny; if they succeed and take the vessel, it is piracy. 
If they ever yield again, their punishment must come; and if they do 
not yield, they are pirates for life. If a sailor resists his commander, 
he resists the law, and piracy or submission are his only alternatives, 
Bad as it is, it must be borne. It is what a sailor ships for. 

Swinging his rope over his head, and bending his body, so as to give 
it full force, the captain brought it down upon the poor fellow’s back. 
Once, twice, six times. “ Will you ever give me any more of your jaw?” 
The man writhed with pain, but said not a word. Three times more. 
This was too much, and he muttered something which I could not hear; 
this brought as many more as the man could stand, when the captain 
ordered him to be cut down, and to go forward. 

“ Now for you,” said the captain, making up to John, and taking his 
irons off. As soon as he was loose, he ran forward to the forecastle. 

“ Bring that man aft,” shouted the captain. 



ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 


518 

The second mate, who had been a shipmate of John’s, stood still in 
the waist, and the mate walked slowly forward; but our third officer, 
anxious to show his zeal, sprang forward over the windlass, and laid hold 
of John; but he soon threw him from him. At this moment I would 
have given worlds for the power to help the poor fellow; but it was all 
in vain. The captain stood on the quarter-deck, bare-headed, his eyes 
flashing with rage, and his face as red as blood, swinging the rope, and 
calling out to his officers: “Drag him aft! Lay hold of him! I’ll 
sweeten him!” etc., etc. 

The mate now went forward, and told John quietly to go aft; and he, 
seeing resistance in vain, threw the blackguard third mate from him — 
said he would go aft himself—that they should not drag him — and went 
up to the gangway, and held out his hands ; but, as soon as the captain 
made him fast, the indignity was too great, and he began to resist; but 
the mate and Russell holding him, he was soon seized up. When he 
was made fast, he turned to the captain, who stood rolling up his sleeves, 
and getting ready for the blow, and asked him what he was to be flogged 
for. “ Have I ever refused my duty, sir? Have you ever known me to 
hang back, or be insolent, or not to know my work?” 

“ No,” said the captain; “ it is not that I flog you for; I flog you for 
your interference—for asking questions?” 

“ Can’t a man ask questions here without being flogged?” 

“ No,” shouted the captain, “ nobody shall open his mouth aboard this 
vessel but myself,” and began laying the blows upon his back, swinging 
half round, between each blow, to give it full effect. As he went on, 
his passion increased, and he danced about the deck, calling out, as he 
swung the rope, 

“ If you want to know what I flog you for, I ’ll tell you. It’s because 
I like to do it!—because I like to do it! It suits me! That’s what I 
do it for!” 

The man writhed under the pain, until he could endure it no longer, 
when he called out with an exclamation, more common among foreigners 
than with us: “ Oh, Jesus Christ! Oh, Jesus Christ!” 

“ Don’t call on Jesus Christ,” shouted the captain, “he can't help you. 

Call on Captain T - ! He’s the man! He can help you! Jesus 

Christ can’t help you now! ” 

At these words, which I never shall forget, my blood ran cold. I 
could look on no longer. Disgusted, sick, and horror-struck, I turned 
away and leaned over the rail, and looked down into the water. A few 
rapid thoughts of my own situation, and of the prospect of future revenge, 
crossed my mind; but the falling of the blows, and the cries of the man 
called me back at once. At length they ceased, and turning round I 
found that the mate, at a signal from the captain, had cut him down. 
Almost doubled up with pain, the man walked slowly forward, and went 
down into the forecastle. Every one else stood still at his post, while the 
captain, swelling with rage, and with the importance of his achievement, 
walked the quarter-deck, and, at each turn, as he came forward, called 
out to us: 

“You see your condition! you see where I have got you all, and you 
know what to expect.”—“You have been mistaken in me: you didn’t 
know what I was! Now you know what I am! ” —“ I’ll make you toe 
the mark, every sort of you, or I’ll flog you all, fore and aft, from the 
boy up!” — “You’ve got a driver over you! Yes, a slave-driver! a 
negro-driver! I’ll see who’ll tell me he isn’t a negro slave!” 



ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 


519 

With this and the like matter, equally calculated to quiet us, and to 
allay any apprehension of any future trouble, he entertained us for 
about ten minutes when he went below. Soon after, John came aft, with 
his bare back covered with stripes and wales in every direction, and 
dreadfully swollen, and asked the steward to ask the captain to let him 
have some salve or balsam to put upon it. “No,” said the captain, 
who heard him from below, “ tell him to put his shirt on, that’s the best 
thing for him; and pull me ashore in the boat. Nobody is going to lay 
up on board of this vessel.” 

He then called to Mr. Russell, to take those two men and two others 
in the boat, and pull him ashore. I went for one. The two men could 
hardly bend their backs, and the captain called out to them to “ give 
way! give way!” but finding they did their best, he let them alone. 
The agent was in the stern-sheets, but during the whole pull—a league 
or more—not a word was spoken. We landed; the captain, agent, and 
officer went up to the house, and left us with the boat. I and the man 
with me staid near the boat, while John and Sam walked slowly away, 
and sat down on the rocks. They talked some time together, but at 
length separated, each sitting alone. I had some fears of John. He was 
a foreigner, and violently tempered, and under suffering; and he had 
his knife with him, and the captain was to come down alone to the 
boat. But nothing happened, and we went quietly on board. The cap¬ 
tain was probably armed, and if either of them had lifted a hand against 
him, they would have had nothing before them but flight and starvation 
in the woods of California, or capture by the soldiers and Indian blood¬ 
hounds, whom the offer of twenty dollars would have set upon them. 

After the day’s work was done, we went down into the forecastle, and 
ate our plain supper; but not a word was spoken. It was Saturday 
night, but there was no song, no “ sweethearts and wives.” A gloom 
was over everything. The two men lay in their berths, groaning with 
pain, and we all turned in, but for myself not to sleep. A sound coming 
now and then from the berths of the two men, showed that they were 
awake, as awake they must have been, for they could hardly lie in one 
posture a moment; the dim, swinging lamp of the forecastle shed its light 
over the dark hole in which we lived, and many and various reflections 
and purposes coursed through my mind. I thought of our situation, living 
under a tyranny, of the character of the country we were in; of the 
length of the voyage, and of the uncertainty attending our return to 
America; and then, if we should return, of the prospect of obtaining 
justice and satisfaction for these poor men; and vowed that if God 
should ever give me the means, I would do something to redress the 
grievances, and relieve the sufferings of that poor class of beings of 
whom I then was one.* 

The excitement which immediately followed the flogging scene soon 
passed off; but the effect of it upon the crew, and especially upon the 
two men themselves, remained. The different manner in which these 
two men were affected, corresponding to their different characters, was 
not a little remarkable. John was a foreigner, and high-tempered, and 


* Well has this resolution been observed. R. H. Dana, Esq., of Boston, author of 
Two Years Before the Mast, from which the above is extracted, is widely known for 
his philanthropic advocacy in behalf of seamen who have suffered from the tyranny 
of brutal officers. 




ADVENTURES OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 


520 

though mortified, as any one would be at having the worst of an encoun¬ 
ter, yet his chief feeling seemed to be anger; and he talked much of 
satisfaction and revenge, if he ever got back to Boston. But with the 
other it was very different. He was an American, and had had some 
education, and this thing coming upon him, seemed completely to break 
him down. He had a feeling of the degradation that had been inflicted 
upon him, which the other man was incapable of. Before that he had 
a good deal of fun, and amused us often with queer negro stories, (he 
was from a slave State;) but afterward he seldom smiled, seemed to lose 
all life and elasticity, and appeared to have but one wish, and that was, 
for the voyage to come to an end. I have often known him to draw a 
long sigh when he was alone, and he took but little part or interest in 
John’s plans of satisfaction and retaliation. 

The flogging was seldom, if ever, alluded to by us in the forecastle. 
If any one was inclined to talk about it, the others, with a delicacy I 
hardly expected to find among them, always stopped him, or turned the 
subject. But the behavior of the two men who were flogged toward 
one another, showed a delicacy, and a sense of honor which would have 
been worthy of admiration in the highest walks of life. Sam knew that 
the other had suffered solely on his account, and in all his complaints he 
said that if he alone had been flogged, it would have been nothing, but 
that he never could see that man without thinking what had been the 
means of bringing that disgrace upon him; and John never, by word or 
deed, let anything escape him to remind the other that it was by inter¬ 
fering to save his shipmate, that he had suffered. 


ADVENTURES 


OF 


A SLAVE-TRADER, 

WHO WAS ENGAGED FOR MANY YEARS IN THE 


AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE. 


Theodore Canot, the son of a captain in the army of Napoleon, 
was born in the interior of Italy, in the year 1807. When twelve years 
of age, his mother, a native of Italy, who had become a widow by the 
battle of Waterloo, allowed him to follow the bent of his inclinations, and 
with a liberal outfit, he embarked at Leghorn, as an apprentice, upon the 
American ship Galatia, of Boston. 

For several years he sailed out of the port of Salem, Massachusetts, 
on voyages to all quarters of the globe. At this period he looked upon 
slaves for the first time in his life. It was in India, at the disembarking 
of a cargo of slaves, when he saw a Malay drag a young and beautiful 
female by the hair. Indignant at the outrage, he felled the savage to the 
earth with his boat-hook—an act more honorable to his humanity than to 
his judgment, as it compelled their vessel to leave the port in haste, to 
avoid popular retaliation. A disappointment of a tender nature caused 
him to forsake his American employers, and he made several voyages 
from European ports ; but, having grown reckless, his hard-earned wages 
at sea were always spent on shore in dissipation: wine, women, and 
gambling were the chief attractions of this fast young man. At length 
we find him on board of a Dutch galiot, bound for Havana. This was in 
1824, at which time the West Indies were infested with those scourges 
of the sea—pirates. When near the termination of their voyage, their 
vessel was wrecked at night upon one of those hidden reefs of coral 
which render navigation in those seas so full of peril. Day dawned, to 
show them the blue mountains of Cuba rising in beauty in the distance, 
while near they discovered a low, sandy, and apparently deserted key. 
Suddenly there shot out from this barren islet a boat containing several 
ill-looking fellows, in the garb of fishermen, who approached and boarded 
their vessel. An arrangement was made, that if their, vessel did not float off 
by the next rise of tide, these men, with their companions on shore, 
should the next day give their assistance to lighten her by carrying her cargo 
to land. On the second morning, the wreckers proceeded to assist the 
crew in discharging the cargo; but by sunset very little had been effected. 
From various circumstances, Canot had his suspicions aroused in regard 
to these men; but his fears only excited the ridicule of his companions. 
Fatigued with the labors of the day, he retired to his state-room to sleep. 
The night being very calm and the vessel near the land, he found his 
berth filled with musquitoes, and took refuge in the stay-sail nettings, 
and, notwithstanding a sort of nervous apprehension, was soon buried in 

(521) 



ADVENTURES OF A SLAVE-TRADER. 


522 

sle*ep. A little past midnight, he was aroused by a piercing shriek. 
Although the moon had set, sufficient light was had to dimly show the 
decks behind him crowded with men. On being thus suddenly aroused 
from sleep, Canot at first thought he was laboring under a dreadful 
nightmare; but in a moment more, the screams of the wounded and the 
dying, and the appeals for mercy that arose, convinced him that a terrible 
tragedy was enacting. The vessel had been boarded by pirates, who 
were then massacring the crew. 

With his usual presence of mind, Canot seized the gasket, and gently 
dropping into the water, boldly struck out for land. He was, in spite of 
his care, overheard, and had swum but a short distance, when he was 
ordered in harsh tones and in Spanish, to return or be shot. Anticipating 
what was to follow, he turned over on his back, and the moment he saw 
the expected flash from a pistol, he dodged, like a duck, under the water, 
and the ball passed harmlessly over his body. Several times the same 
plan was resorted to, until the increasing distance placed him out of the 
danger. Half an hour was then spent industriously in swimming, in which 
art he was an adept, and by which he managed to escape both pistol-bul¬ 
lets and the sharks ever numerous in those waters, and reaching land, 
he secreted himself in a dense growth of mangroves. Destitute of all 
clothing except trowsers, he had been in this dismal jungle but a short 
time when swarms of musquitoes lighted upon him, and he was obliged 
to run and plunge into the water to avoid the torture of their stings; and 
so it continued alternately through the night. At the gray of \ morning, 
Canot climbed the tallest tree he could find, which rose but a few feet above 
the sand, and casting his eye over the water, saw his vessel surrounded 
by numerous boats, which the pirates were busy loading with their ill- 
gotten booty. All the morning he watched the movements of the ruffians, 
with no pleasurable emotions. To add to his distress, the sun poured 
down upon his naked body with an intensity known only to the tropics, 
and he suffered greatly from burning thirst, which he vainly endeavored to 
assuage by chewing bitter berries that grew around him. Late in the 
afternoon, the pirates towed the vessel in a south-eastern direction, until 
it was lost to view behind a headland. As the galiot disappeared, and 
all traces of his companions had vanished, he felt for the first time the 
utter loneliness and destitution of his condition, and gave vent to his 
feelings in a copious flood of tears. 

The sun had sunk in the west, when Canot, exhausted in body from 
hunger and thirst, and his nervous system shocked by the dreadful scenes 
he had witnessed, commenced arrangements to pass the night. To 
escape the swarms of musquitoes, he was about to bury his body in the 
sand, and cover his head with his trowsers, when he was startled by a 
noise in the adjacent bushes. Looking in that direction, he saw a blood¬ 
hound quickly moving to and fro, his nose to the earth, snuffing out his 
prey. Instantly divining his errand, Canot sprang into a tree, just in time 
to escape the fangs of the ferocious beast, which came bounding on with 
yells of rage, followed by two armed men. These proved tcf have been 
men sent out by the pirate leader in search of any of the crew of the 
galiot that might have escaped. 

Canot was conducted by his captors to a hut at no great distance, 
made of planks and sails from wrecks, where the whole piratical commu¬ 
nity had assembled. A council was had upon his fate, and he would 
doubtless have been sacrificed, upon the principle that dead men tell no 
tales, were it not that their leader had taken an interest in the young 


ADVENTURES OF A SLAVE-TRADER. 


523 

sailor, and interposed in his behalf. Don Rafael, for so he was called, 
was originally an officer in the French army, who, after the close of the 
career of Napoleon at Waterloo, found his wav to the New World, and 
had drawn his sword in behalf of the revolutionists of Mexico; but, as 
is common with similar adventurers, had been buffeted by fortune until 
circumstances had changed him into a leader of wrecker-pirates—the 
very vilest of their kind, who never strike until their foe is crippled. 

The band of villains who made this island their head-quarters ostensi¬ 
bly followed the occupation of fishing for the market of Havana. But 
their position was chosen with a view to committing depredations upon 
the many unfortunate vessels which were wrecked, from time to time, by 
the dangerous navigation in its vicinity. Canot was duly installed as 
assistant cook to the band—no unimportant office, as to men who lead a 
mere animal existence a tickled palate is one of the great chief ends of 
life. His stay with them was but brief. In a few weeks thereafter, Don 
Rafael furnished him with a letter to Signor Carlo, a friend in Havana, 
who was engaged in the slave-trade. He had been in the Cuban city 
but a few weeks, when Signor Carlo bought a pilot-boat of forty tons, 
named her “ El Areostatico,” from her great speed, placed a culverin 
amidships, and furnished her with all the requisites of a slave vessel, not 
omitting several kegs of specie, wherewith to purchase her return cargo 
of human beings. It was on the second of September, 1826 , that the 
u El Areostatico” sailed from the port of Havana, carrying Canot as a 
sort of supernumerary. The crew consisted of twenty-one scamps—the 
offscourings of various nations. The captain, a native of the island of 
Majorica, was but a poor sailor, and the want of discipline and utter 
worthlessness and ignorance of the men under him, rather astonished 
Canot, himself a thorough-bred sailor. On the thirteenth of October, 
they reached the Rio Pongo, on the African coast, and anchored at Ben- 
galong. This place was the residence and slave factory of Mr. Ormond, 
or, as he was called by the natives, Mongo John—the word “Mongo” 
signifying chief. 

The Areostatico, in a few days, was in complete order to receive her 
cargo; was well supplied with wood, water and provisions; and being 
small, without any slave-deck, soft mats were placed among and over the 
firewood and casks in her hold, to make an even surface for the stowage 
of a living freight. This task completed, Canot was invited by Mongo 
John to regale himself ashore. He was shown the town, the baracoons 
or pens for slaves, the stores, and the harem or wifery of his entertainer. 
He had been but a few days on shore, when the chief offered and he 
accepted the situation of a clerk. His compensation was, a private 
establishment, a seat at his table, and a negro per month, or his equiva¬ 
lent value on his native soil, forty dollars. The runners into the interior 
having filled the complement of the Areostat.ico’s cargo, Canot went 
aboard, just previous to her sailing, to see it stowed. It was composed 
of children, boys and girls, all under sixteen years of age. One hun¬ 
dred and eight of these young people were packed in the hold of this 
little vessel, which was but one foot and ten inches in height; yet, strange 
of belief, all but three survived the miseries of their passage to Havana! 

The quarters assigned to Canot at Bengalong, consisted of a cane 
house, plastered with mud and thatched, with an earthen floor and a 
broad projecting veranda, shade and shelter being the chief points 
required within the tropics. His employer was a fair specimen of the 
African slave merchant. He was the mulatto son of a rich English 


ADVENTURES OF A SLAVE-TRADER. 


524 

slave-trader, by the daughter of a negro chief. When a youth, he was 
sent to England to be educated. His father dying a few years after, he 
was thrown upon his own resources, and became a sailor, following that 
business for five years, sometimes before the mast, and sometimes as a 
dandy waiter in the cabin. Hoarding his earnings, he returned to Africa 
to claim his father’s property, and there found his mother yet alive. The 
sable matron recognized her first-born; “ a grand palaver” was had of all 
his relations, when Ormond was duly reinstated, according to coast law, 
in possession of all his father’s property in houses, lands, and slaves. 
Thus raised to comparative opulence, he embarked in the profession of 
his deceased parent, under the name of u Mongo,” or Chief of the River. 
Trade poured in upon him; his stores were supplied with the fabrics of 
Europe and America, and the native products of hides, wax, palm-oil, 
ivory and gold, while his overflowing slave-pens were from time to time 
emptied by vessels which drove a thriving trade with Cuba and Brazil. 
In a few years, he was a wealthy merchant, and a great man among the 
petty chiefs of the Foulah and Mandingo tribes of the back country, 
who flattered his vanity by the title of “ king,” and evinced their desire 
to cultivate his good-will by stocking his harem with their prettiest 
daughters. 

One of the first acts of Canot was to take an inventory of the Mongo’s 
property. This showed a large deficiency, the result of the chief’s 
negligence, growing out of his debasing, voluptuous habits. On pre¬ 
senting this to Ormond, he viewed it with indifference, and evinced such 
petulance, that Canot felt satisfied he knew that his affairs were in a 
disastrous condition. On re-entering the warehouse, Canot met an old 
hag, Ungagolah by name, the manager of the Mongo’s harem, who went 
to the cloth-chest, and took out several yards of calico. Canot, upon 
this, gave her to understand by signs, for he could not speak a word of 
the dialect, he should not allow such liberties without a written order 
from the chief. She thereat flew into a violent passion, her horrid face 
lit up with a devilish ferocity, never seen excepting among savages, and 
with violent contortions of the body, flashing eyes and awful screams, 
she poured upon him torrents of abuse. 

Ormond received the relation of this petty larceny with a laugh of in¬ 
difference. That night, while meditating on his pallet, Canot was aroused 
by a gentle tap at his door. Extinguishing the light, to avoid treachery, 
he grasped his pistols, and cautiously opened the door. A female stood 
before him, whom he recognized in the starlight as one of the pearls of 
Mongo’s harem—a beautiful quadroon. She was the child of a mulatto 
by a white man, and having been born at Sierra Leon could converse in 
English. She came on an errand of mercy—to warn Canot of the wrath 
of Ungagolah, never to take anything that a Mandingo offered him, to 
eat exclusively from the Mongo’s table, or else Ungagolah, who knew all 
the Mandingo ju-jus , (poisons,) would soon put him where she could 
again have free access to the keys of the warehouse. 

The wifery or harem of the Mongo was a primitive establishment, 
formed by a square of mud huts. In his more early days, Mongo gov¬ 
erned his harem with the usual decorum of such establishments. But 
now, as age stole over him, he became a worn-out debauchee , his mind 
and body weak from licentiousness, ardent spirits and opium. His harem 
was kept up from fashion; and his wives had generally each a lover in 
Bengalong. Womanly quarrels sometimes took place, especially if two 
of these black beauties happened to fancy the same lover. On these 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 


525 

occasions, they would sometimes strip, and a regular battle ensue. 
Sometimes their lovers would have a set-to to determine these matters^ 
The usual form of the duel was to decide by lot, for the first chance, 
when the lover stripped and received a certain number of blows from his 
antagonist, fiom a cowhide. And so on in turn, the one who stood the 
greatest number of blows without flinching was declared the victor. To 
show a back well marked with the stripes of such conflicts, was a point 
of great pride with those chivalrous youths. 

At the close of the rainy season, the caravans were looked for, with 
slaves from the interior. A number of messengers were dispatched 
through the trails among the dense forests back from the coast, to meet and 
welcome the traders of the back country. A few days after their depar¬ 
ture, the report of musketry signaled the approach of a caravan, which 
was replied to by the Mongo’s people with firing of cannon. In a few 
minutes, a long caravan entered the village, headed by a band of singers 
praising their chief and leader—the great Ahmah-de-Bellah. The train 
consisted of about seven hundred persons, leading captive forty negroes, 
bound with bamboo withes. Beside the slaves, were large quantities of 
the usual articles of produce of the interior—hides, ivory, gold, rice, 
bullocks, sheep, goats, beeswax, etc. 

Mr. Ormond received the Mohammedan strangers, with great pomp, in 
the piazza of his receiving house—the ceremony of presentation to the 
traders of the caravan occupying about an hour. The trading lasted 
several days, each day being devoted to one especial article. Each morn¬ 
ing a crier went through the town, to give information of the special 
trade of the day. One day it was in rice, another in cattle, another in 
slaves, and so on. 

Ahmah-de-Bellah was the son of the Ali-Mami, or King of Footha- 
Yallon, who, having arrived at the age of “ twenty-four rainy seasons,” 
was invested with the honor of leading a caravan to the coast, which to 
form requires time and skill. When the wet season is finished, the 
chieftain goes out with bands of armed men, and lays in ambush on all 
the trails which lead to the sea-side, until enough of small traders are 
secured to form a large caravan, which gives consequence to the leader, 
and enhances his property, by his per centage on the amount of sales at 
the towns or factories on the coast. 

Eight of the slaves of this caravan were rejected by the Mongo. One 
of them Ahmah insisted should be shipped, as he could neither kill nor 
keep him. This slave had been guilty of the murder of his son, and was 
sentenced to be sold a slave to the Christians, a punishment ranked 
worse than death. It was interesting to watch the examination of the 
slaves when brought before the Mongo for purchase. Disregardful of 
sex, he examined each from head to foot, handled the principal muscles, 
the arm-pits, groins, cracked the joints, peered into their mouths to note 
the missing teeth, scanned the eyes, voice, lungs, fingers, and even toes, 
so as to be assured of their soundness. To Canot’s astonishment, the 
Mongo rejected one apparently powerful man, whose full muscles and 
sleek skin evinced high health. He had been subjected to the usual 
jockey tricks of the dealers: they had medicated him with bloating 
drugs, and given him a glossy skin by sweating him with powder and 
lemon-juice. A few days after, Canot saw him abandoned in a neighbor¬ 
ing hut, a mere wreck of a man. Whenever a slave in the interior 
evinces an impaired constitution, he is sold to a peddler or broker, who, 
with the aid of a quack, repairs him for sale to greenhorns; but the old 


526 ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 

slavers detect the ruse by the yellow eye, swollen tongue and feverish 
skin. 

Canot eventually left the employment of Mongo John, and took up his 
residence with a slave-trader, named Edward Joseph. While a guest 
with him, a great event occurred in his history. This was on the fifth 
of March, 1827 , when a Spanish slaver, the La Fortuna , from Regia, the 
Havana grocer, arrived, which, to the astonishment of Canot, was con¬ 
signed to him. with all the materials with which to purchase an “ assorted 
cargo of slaves.” Thus suddenly elevated to the position of “ a trader,” 
but destitute of a baracoon or pen of slaves, he called in requisition all 
the traders of the river, and offering unusually high terms, soon collected 
the required number; so that, at the appointed day, the vessel sailed with 
two hundred and twenty human beings packed in her hold. She arrived 
safely at Cuba: the voyage yielded a profit of over forty thousand 
dollars, which was more than one hundred per cent, profit, over all the 
expenses. Canot was now fairly embarked in the slave-trade, and in the 
history of his life gives a detail of the customs of this commerce, some 
of which we here subjoin. 

An African trader of reputation selects his cargo with great care, so 
as to avoid sending to his employers any that are not able-bodied, or that 
are afflicted with any contagious disease, that may be communicated to 
other slaves on the voyage. Previous to the shipment, the heads of every 
male and female are shaved, and the initials of their respective owners 
burnt on their bodies. This is omitted, when the cargo is consigned to 
but one proprietor. The last day is signalized by a feast given to the 
slaves in their baracoons. When over, they are taken to the vessel in 
canoes, and there stripped entirely naked , perfect nudity being consid¬ 
ered indispensable to health and cleanliness during the voyage. The 
men are placed in the hold, the women in the cabin, and the children on 
deck—the latter protected at night by a sail. .They take their meals in 
messes of ten, and in olden times, when the trade was lawful, it was a 
universal custom of the Spanish captains to say grace and return thanks. 
Nowadays, the ceremony is substituted for a “Hurrah for Havana!” 
accompanied by a clapping of hands. Before eating, the slaves wash their 
hands in buckets of salt water, and then kids of either rice, farina, yams 
or beans are given to each squad. As a preventive against greediness, 
each mouthful is dipped up at a signal from a monitor. Whenever a 
slave refuses to eat, he is duly reported by the guard, and if from illness, 
he is cared for, and if from a desire to commit suicide by starvation, as 
is sometimes the case, a good appetite is stimulated by a few blows from 
a cat-o’-nine tails, well laid on. The slaves are fed twice a day—at ten 
in the morning, and four in the afternoon, and a pint and a half of water 
allowed them during the twenty-four hours. Aside from this they are 
occasionally indulged in a few whifs of tobacco, each in rotation, from 
pipes passed round by boys. Every alternate day their mouths are rinsed 
with vinegar, and each morning a dram is given them to keep off the 
scurvy. The sexes, although separated, are permitted during the day to 
converse on deck, and when punishment is inflicted, it is for some fault, 
and is done only by an order from an officer. Weekly they are shaved, 
without lathering, by a barber, and their nails pared, so that they need not 
harm each other in those nightly contests in which they battle for room on 
their plank beds. In pleasant weather, they are permitted to unite their 
voices in singing their native melodies, mixed with various drumming?, 
or tom-toms , on reversed tubs or tin-kettles 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 


527 


The greatest care is taken to keep the vessel clean: chloride of lime 
is freely distributed, the decks often washed, scraped and holystoned, so 
that in neatness and in discipline a well-conducted slaver is only equaled 
by a man-of-war. At sunset, the slaves are stowed for the night; the 
officers, with whip in hand, ranging the slaves—those on the right side 
of the vessel facing the bows, those on the left facing the stern, so as to 
bring each negro on his right side, and thus allow better action for the 
heart. The tallest are placed in the center and broadest part of the ves¬ 
sel, the shortest near the bows and stern. Strict discipline is required 
for the nightly stowage, lest the living freight should take upon them¬ 
selves the airs of passengers. To insure silence and order, every tenth 
slave is provided with a whip, and if any of those under his charge are 
noisy, he dextrously uses his weapon, and finds his reward in a present 
of an old shirt or tar-besmeared trowsers. Ventilation is well provided 
for, and when among the suffocating calms of the tropics, a portion of 
the slaves sleep on deck under an armed watch. In the baracoons, and 
while being shipped, slaves are chained in gangs of ten; but at sea they 
are fastened in pairs, by irons at their ankles. 

From this account of CanOt, it would appear that no unnecessary 
severity is or ever has been resorted to: the slavers manifesting about 
the same degree of interest in the welfare of their cargo, as the com¬ 
mander of a Connecticut horse jockey evinces in his cargo of four-limbed 
quadrupeds, which he wishes to land on one of the Bermudas in as salable 
a condition as is possible. Our own countryman, Captain Andrew II. 
Foote, of the U. S. Navy, in his work on Africa and the American Flag, 
has accumulated evidence which gives a very different account from that 
drawn by Canot, and from which we subjoin some statements. 

The slave-trade is now carried on by comparatively small and ill-found 
vessels, watched by the cruisers incessantly. They are, therefore, induced, 
at any risk of loss of life, to crowd and pack their cargoes, so that a 
successful voyage may compensate for many captures. In olden times, 
when the trade was legal, large vessels were fitted expressly for the 
business—Indiamen or whalers. It has been objected to the employment 
of squadrons to exterminate that trade, that their interference has in¬ 
creased its enormity. This, however, is not true, for if there ever was 
anything on earth, which, for revolting, filthy, heartless atrocity might 
make the devil wonder and hell recognize its own likeness, then it was 
on the decks of any one of the old slavers. The sordid cupidity of the 
older, as it is meaner, was also more callous than the hurried ruffianism 
of the present age. In fact, a slaver now has but one deck; in the last 
century they had two or three, the number of decks rendering the suffo¬ 
cating and pestilential hold a scene of unparalleled wretchedness. 

Here are some instances of this, collected from evidence taken before 
the British House of Commons, in 1792. James Morley, gunner of the 
Medway, states: “ He has seen them under great difficulty of breathing. 
The women often, particularly, got upon the beams to get air, but they 
were driven down because they take air from the rest. He has known 
rice held in the mouths of sea-sick slaves, until they were almost strangled. 
He has seen the surgeon’s mate force the panniken between their teeth, 
and throw the medicine over them, so that not half of it went into their 
mouths—the poor wretches wallowing in their blood, hardly having life, 
and this with blows of the cat.” Dr. Thomas Trotter, surgeon of the 
Brookes, says: “He has seen the slaves drawing their breath with all 
those laborious and anxious efforts for life, which are observed in expiring 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 


528 

animals, subjected, by experiment, to foul air, or in the exhausted 
receiver of an air-pump. Has also seen them, when the tarpaulins have 
inadvertently been thrown over the gratings, attempt to heave them up, 
crying out: ‘ Kicker aboo ! kicker dboo ! /’— i.e., 4 We are dying! we 
are dying!P On removing the tarpaulin and gratings, they would fly 
to the hatchways with all the signs of terror and dread of suffocation ; 
many of those whom he has seen in a dying state have recovered by being 
brought upon deck; others, who were previously well, perished by suffo¬ 
cation.” In regard to the Garlands voyage in 1788, the testimony is: 
“ The slaves, both when ill and well, were frequently forced to eat against 
their inclination, and were whipped with a cat if they refused. The 
parts on which their shackles are fastened, are often excoriated by the 
violent exercise they are forced to take. Fell in with the Hero , which 
had lost over three hundred, mostly by the smallpox—the surgeon stat¬ 
ing, that when removed from one place to another, they left marks of 
their skin and blood upon the deck, and that it was the most horrid sight 
he had ever seen.” 

Even at that time, when the trade was under systematic regulations, 
the slaves were obliged to lie upon their backs, and were shackled by 
their ankles, the left of one being fastened close by the right of the next; 
so that the whole number, in one line for the length of the deck, formed 
a single living chain. When one died, the body remained during the night; 
and in bad weather, when the hatches were necessarily closed, suffocation 
would occur. It can, therefore, be understood that the strong strangled 
the weak intentionally, to procure more space, and that when striving to 
get near some aperture affording air to breathe, many would be injured 
or killed in the struggle. Such were “ the horrors of the middle 
passage.” We subjoin some extracts, giving the condition in which 
slave vessels have been found in our time. The first is from a report of 
Captain Hayes to the Admiralty, of a representation made to him 
respecting a slaver, in 1832: 

“ The master, having a large cargo of these human beings chained 
together, with more humanity than his fellows, permitted some of them 
to come on deck for the benefit of the weather, but still chained together, 
when they immediately commenced jumping overboard, hand in hand, 
and drowning in couples. They had just been brought from between 
decks, to which they knew they must return, where the scalding per¬ 
spiration wafe running from one to the other, men dying and living, and 
dead bodies chained together; and the living, in addition to all their tor¬ 
ments, laboring under the most famishing thirst. These unfortunate 
people had just been torn from their country, their families, their all!— 
men from their wives, women from their husbands, children from their 
parents; and yet, in this man’s eye, there was no cause whatever for 
jumping overboard and drowning. The men are chained in pairs, and 
as a proof they are intended so to remain until the end of the voyage, 
their fetters are not locked but riveted by the blacksmith; and as deaths 
are frequently occurring, living men are often for awhile confined to 
dead bodies, the latter sometimes in a putrid state.” 

The notorious Spanish slaver, the Velos Passagueiro , was captured by 
the North Star, after a long chase and a battle, and was found full of 
slaves. Behind her foremast was an enormous gun, turning on a broad 
circle of iron, and enabling her to act as a pirate, if her slave speculation 
had failed. She had taken in 562 slaves, and had been out seventeen 
days, during which she had thrown overboard fifty-five. 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 529 

The slaves were all inclosed under grated hatchways between decks. 
The space was so low that they sat between each other’s legs, and were 
stowed so close together that there was no possibility of their lying down, 
or at all changing their position by day or night. As they were shipped on 
account of different individuals, they were all branded like sheep, with 
the owner’s marks, of different forms. These were impressed under 
their hearts, or on their arms, and as the mate informed me, with perfect 
indifference, “ burnt with the red-hot iron.” Over the hatchway, stood a 
ferocious-looking fellow, with a scourge of many twisted thongs in his 
hand, who was the slave-driver of the ship. 

As soon as the poor creatures saw us looking down at them, their dark 
and melancholy visages brightened up. They perceived something of 
sympathy and kindness in our looks, to which they had been unaccus¬ 
tomed; and feeling instinctively that we were friends, they immediately 
began to shout and clap their hands. One or two had picked up a few 
Portuguese words, and cried out, Viva! viva! The women were particu¬ 
larly excited. They all held up their arms, and when we bent down and 
shook hands with them, they could not restrain their delight: they endeav¬ 
ored to scramble up on their knees, stretching up to kiss our hands, and 
we understood that they knew we were coming to liberate them. Some, 
however, hung their heads in apparently hopeless dejection; some were 
greatly emaciated, and some, particularly children, seemed dying. But 
the circumstance which struck us most forcibly, was, how it was possible 
for such a number of human beings to exist, packed up and wedged to¬ 
gether as close as they could cram, in low cells three feet high. In one 
part of the hold, the average sitting space to each woman was not more 
than thirteen inches. The heat of these horrid places was so great, and 
the odor so offensive, that it was quite impossible to enter them, even 
had there been room. The officers insisted that the poor suffering crea¬ 
tures should be admitted on deck to get air and water. 

On looking into the places where they had been crammed, there 
were found some children next the sides of the ship, in the places most 
remote from the air and light; they were lying in nearly a torpid state, 
after the rest had been turned out. The little creatures seemed indif¬ 
ferent as to life and death; and when carried on deck, many of them 
could not stand. After enjoying, for some time, the unusual luxury of 
air, some water was brought; it was then that the extent of their suffer¬ 
ings was exposed in a fearful manner. They all rushed like maniacs 
toward it; no entreaties, or threats, or blows, could restrain them; they 
shrieked, and struggled, and fought with one another, for a drop of this 
precious liquid, as if they grew rabid at the sight of it. There is noth¬ 
ing slaves in the mid-passage suffer so much from as the want of water. 
It Is sometimes usual to take out casks filled with sea-water, as ballast, 
and when the slaves are received on board, to start the casks and refill 
them with fresh. On one occasion, a ship from Bahia neglected to change 
the casks, and on the mid-passage found, to their horror, that they were 
filled with nothing but salt water. All the slaves on board perished. At 
the time of this seizure of the Velos Passaguiro, Brazil was precluded 
from the slave-trade north of the equator; but the time had not arrived 
when, by treaty, the Southern trade was to be extinguished. The Captain 
of this slaver had papers which exhibited an apparent uniformity to the 
law, and which, false as they may have been, could in no way be 
absolutely disproved. The accounts of the slaves themselves, that they 
had originally come from parts of Africa north of the line, the course 
34 


530 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 


which the slaver was steering, her flight from the English cruiser—were 
circumstances raising suspicions the most violent; but the reader will not 
be a little disappointed to learn that, with all this, the case was too doubt¬ 
ful, in point of legal proof, to bear out a legal detention; and the slaver, 
therefore, after nine hours of close investigation, was finally set at liberty, 
and suffered to proceed. It was dark when we separated, and the last 
parting sounds we heard from the unhallowed ship, were the cries and 
shrieks of slaves, suffering under some bodily infliction.” 

We now return to the story of Canot, who had grown to such sudden 
importance, that the neighboring kings and chiefs sent him various pre¬ 
sents, to propitiate the good graces of the young and enterprising slave- 
dealer. In the month of November, he received and accepted an invita¬ 
tion, by a messenger, from Ahmah-de-Bellah, to visit him in his own 
country, the land of the Fellahs, several weeks’ journey into the interior. 
This journey was undertaken with an eye to the advancement of the 
business interests of Canot, in the merchandise of human flesh. He 
left Bengalong with a caravan of about forty-five. Ten of his servants 
were assigned to carry his baggage, merchandise, and provisions. Ali 
Ninpha, the guide, two interpreters, two servants, and a hunter, formed 
his immediate guard. As the best of African roads are mere paths, the 
train marched in single file, preceded by two men, armed with cutlasses 
and muskets, who, by loud cries, warned the caravan when approaching 
bee-trees, ant-hills, hornet-nests, reptiles, or any of those perils common 
in African forests. Behind, came women, children, and guards, and, 
last of all, Canot and the chiefs, with whip in hand, to spur up the strag¬ 
glers. For a few days, they passed through a rolling country; with 
alternate forests and cultivated fields and villages, where they were 
welcomed by the head men. The time was beguiled by jokes and songs, 
and chanting praises to Allah. Occasionally the masters would relieve 
their slaves of their burdens ; at night, the women brought the water, 
cooked the food, and distributed it to the men. The fourth night was 
passed at Kya, a fortified town of the Mandingoes, where they were 
feasted by the chief with the best of the land, and whose hospitality 
Canot reciprocated by such abundance of the white man’s strong water, 
that the next morning he was unable to leave his couch to bid farewell 
to his guests. 

Traveling into the interior of Africa would be a mere rural jaunt, were 
it not for the perils of war. The African, in his life, is a half shepherd 
and half warrior. Though uncivilized, his country is not absolutely wild, 
and Mohammedanism, descending from the north, in its southward jour- 
neyings, has, in the course of centuries, much altered and improved the 
negro character. The humanizing influence of the Koran upon the 
interior tribes is evident. But with all these changes, external nature is 
ever magnificent. Shade and shelter is all the climate requires, and so 
great the fertility, that trifling labor, united to the abundance of tropical 
fruits, yields ample support. Amid such oppressive heats, with so little 
occasion for effort, it does not seem as though the African could ever be 
stimulated to the industry which develops all that is noble in man in 
more inhospitable climes. 

For the six hundred miles that Canot traversed, his course was through 
an almost continuous forest, and so dense the foliage, that often for hours 
not a glimpse of the sun was had; but when they entered the bare vallies 
the suffering from heat was intense. Everything was all glare: the 
reflected rays from every surrounding object pierced them like lances, 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 


531 

and it seemed as if their very eyes were simmering and drying up in their 
sockets. When the highlands were reached, the temperature became in¬ 
vigorating, and the scenery always beautiful, and frequently grand. In 
their rear, gently-rounded hills, checkered here and there by native huts, 
with patches of sward and cultivation amid the forest, swelled up in sur¬ 
passing beauty of contour; while to the north and east, lofty hills and 
mountains rose up in continuous succession, until, in the far distance, the 
blue of land and sky met and mingled in the same ethereal tint. The 
next principal town reached was Tamisso, which the caravan entered 
with great pomp, the women being particularly careful in adorning their 
persons. “ Wool was combed to its utmost rigidity; skins were greased 
until they shone like polished ebony ; ankles and arms were restrung 
with beads, and loins were girded with snowy waist-cloths.” Mounted 
on a beautiful horse, Canot rode with his motley group into the town, 
amid the discharge of fire-arms, the noise of tom-toms, and the melody 
of the unctuous women. Crowds of men, women and children, rushed 
forward to gaze upon the white man, the Mongo of the coast. He 
pressed on to the palace of Mohamedo, which, like all royal palaces in 
Africa, consisted of a collection of mud huts, with shady verandas, in 
the midst of a quadrangular court. On a couch covered with leopard 
skins reclined in state the chief Mohamedo, in half-Turkish costume. 
He was a fat old man, with a long, flowing, snowy beard, in strange con¬ 
trast to his ebony skin. The old sinner being informed that Canot was 
on a trading tour for the purchase of slaves for numerous vessels hover¬ 
ing on the coast, with immense cargoes of red cloth, beads, and other 
gew-gaws of savage desire, rose, and in a loud voice presented him to 
his people as his “beloved son!” 

That evening, Canot, jaded out with the dust, heat, and crowd of this 
noisy African town, retired to a court behind his lodgings to take a bath. 
But his modesty was shocked by the presence of a bevy of the sable 
damsels of the harem, who, on learning that the “ Furtoo” was about to 
bathe, crowded around him as he commenced to disrobe. When he 
pulled off his shirt, but leaving his lower garment untouched, several of 
them fled to call their companions to see “the peeled Furtoo,” whose 
snowy back and breast had excited their wonder. One old hag run her 
fingers over his chest, and then, as if he were reeking with leprosy, 
wiped them on the wall. With great difficulty, he got rid of the chatter¬ 
ing crowd, and finished his preparations for his ablutions, 

Tamisso, like many of the interior towns, was completely inclosed by 
two lines of high fence, a few feet apart, the space between being filled 
with upright staves, their sharp points hardened by fire. Admittance to 
the town was through gates, with winding passages. 

It was not many days before the caravan arrived at their journey’s 
end, the town of Timbo, the capital of the kingdom of Footha-Yallon. 
The king, Ali-Mami, Canot found a gouty, inquisitive old Mussulman, 
who greeted him with most affectionate hugs, then stretched out his arms 
to Heaven, and exclaimed, “God is great! God is great! and Mohammed 
is his prophet!” He then plied him with questions about his history— 
“Who was his father? who was his mother? how many brothers had he? 
were they warriors? were they book men?” etc., etc. The next day, a 
grand palaver was had with the chiefs, in a beautiful grove of trees. 
His friend, Ahmah-de-Bellah, presented him to the great men, stating 
that he was a rich trader from the Rio Pongo, who was entitled to 
most courteous treatment from Fellahs, for he had penetrated to their 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 


532 

distant country to purchase slaves on most generous terms—an interesting 
communication, which they received with shouts of joy. Canot, in return, 
made a sort of stump speech, and then unfolded to their view a quantity 
of presents he had brought for them, consisting of gaudy calicoes, scar¬ 
let cloth, powder, muskets, tobacco, and beads, not omitting a gilded 
sword, and a package of cantharides for the king. 

During his sojourn at Timbo, Canot made several incursions into the 
neighboring villages, but the poor people, knowing that the object of his 
journey was to obtain slaves, fled in the greatest terror before him, 
Panic-stricken, they would leave their pots of rice, vegetables and meat, 
boiling in their huts, and fly in the greatest terror from the presence of 
the notorious slaver. War-parties and scouts were sent out in the mean¬ 
time, to collect slaves for Canot, and even the town itself was not 
spared, so that the more common people regarded him as a sort of devil 
incarnate. 

Timbo was a town of narrow streets, low houses, mud walls, cul-de- 
sacs, and mosques. The people appeared to be industrious. Peddlers 
supplied them with fruit, vegetables, and meat. The females kept 
themselves busy with their spinning-wheels, and occasionally an old 
lady, devoutly disposed, was seen poring over the pages of the Koran. 
The men wore cotton, worked in leather, fabricated iron from the bar, 
and when at leisure, studied the Koran, or occupied themselves in 
writing. 

Canot, on his return to Bengalong, headed a caravan of near a thou¬ 
sand strong, the greater part of which were slaves collected by his friends 
in Timbo. For a change of scene, he soon after took command of one 
of his vessels, and set sail on a visit to Cuba. He had scarce got out 
of sight of land, when the slaver fell into the hands of a British cruiser, 
and Canot was taken prisoner. He managed to escape in a small boat, 
and, with a slave for a companion, reached Bengalong in safety. He there 
found the Felix at anchor, a vessel which had been consigned to him 
from Cuba, with remittances in money and merchandise to cover the 
purchase of 350 slaves. Unable to procure in season a full cargo, he 
made a short journey to a village in the interior, to obtain the additional 
fifty required. A grand “ palaver” was had with the chief and head 
men, when he made known his wants and announced his terms. His 
merchandise, his scarlet-cloth, bits of looking-glass, beads, etc., had 
their usually magical effects. Jealous husbands suddenly recollected 
their wives’ infidelity. Young folks, who had never dreamed of being 
made slaves, were captured and brought in. The whole place was in a 
turmoil. Every man was ready to accuse his neighbor of some crime, 
that he might kidnap him, and obtain a share of the spoils. And when 
Canot left the town, he carried with him the eternal remembrances of 
some forty or fifty of its families, whom he had deprived of some one 
of their members. The capture of his former vessel rendered it neces¬ 
sary that Canot should visit Cuba in the Felix. This voyage was suc¬ 
cessful. From Cuba he sailed for Jamaica, for a cargo of merchandise, 
with the intention of returning and refitting for slaves. The trip was 
disastrous, the vessel being wrecked, by which Canot was so reduced in 
fortune, as gladly to accept the situation of sailing-master in the San 
Pablo, a slaver which was fitting out at St. Thomas. This vessel was 
armed with sixteen guns, and the entire crew and officers arrayed in the 
uniform of the French navy, so as to convey the deception that she was 
a French man-of-war. Her destination was a town in the Mozambique 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 


533 


Channel, on the eastern coast of Africa. Eight hundred negroes were 
obtained and shipped, and the vessel had arrived off the Cape of Good 
Hope when the smallpox broke out. A council was held, and it was 
determined at first to destroy the sick by laudanum, to preserve the living; 
but the examination showed that too many were infected to render this 
of any avail. A series of tremendous gales springing up, rendered the 
closing of the hatches imperative. When, at its termination, the grat¬ 
ings were removed, it was fdund that nearly all the slaves were sick or 
dead. Twelve of the stoutest survivors, together with a part of the crew, 
armed with tarred mittens, went into the hold, dragged out and threw 
overboard more than three hundred corpses, men, women, and children, 
in a most disgusting state of putrefaction. 

Twelve thousand dollars fell to the share of Canot, as the result of 
this voyage, which he applied to the fitting out of the Conchita, a 
Baltimore clipper. He was no sooner ready for sea than his vessel was 
seized for a fraud practiced upon the Cuban authorities, and Canot barely 
escaped a prison, by fleeing to and remaining in the interior for several 
weeks. He was too valuable a man for the slave-dealers to allow to 
remain idle. He was speedily put in command of the Estrella, and 
steered for Ayudah, on the Gold Coast, with a sufficient supply of rum, 
powder, English muskets, and rich cottons from Manchester, to purchase 
450 slaves. 

The Estrella was consigned to Senor da Sousa, one of the most noto¬ 
rious and successful of those infamous merchants known in coast annals. 
This man was a mulatto, born in Rio Janeiro. How he reached Africa 
is unknown; but when there, he deserted his master, and eventually 
made his way into the interior, to the court of Dahomey. At this period 
the Brazilian slave-trade was in full vigor, and the adventurous refugee 
managed with great skill in his dealings, as a broker, among the natives ; 
from small beginnings, he gradually grew up into an opulent trader. 
His mixed blood helped him on. He learned to speak like a native, 
became an African among Africans, and among the whites assumed the 
easy, winning address of his country. Chief after chief became his 
friend, and he finally obtained the summit of his influence, in being 
made the favorite of the powerful king of Dahomey. So great was the 
estimation in which this man was held by the Dahomians, that when he 
died, in 1849, a boy and girl were beheaded and buried with him, and 
three men offered up in sacrifice. For months the funeral honors to his 
memory were continued. The town was kept in a continual ferment. 
Three hundred of the women who compose the Dahomian army daily 
paraded, and fired, and danced in his honor. Bands of people paraded 
the streets, headed by guinea-fowls, ducks, goats, pigeons and pigs, on 
poles, alive for sacrifice. Much rum was distributed, and nightly there 
was shouting, firing, and dancing. Such were the hellish orgies occa¬ 
sioned by the death of this infamous wretch. 

At the time of Canot’s arrival, da Sousa was at the summit of his 
career. He had built him a magnificent dwelling at Ayudah, and sur¬ 
rounded himself with all the luxuries of an animal existence. “ Wines, 
food, delicacies and raiment were brought from Paris, London and Ha¬ 
vana. The most beautiful women of the country were lured to his set¬ 
tlement. Billiard-tables and gambling halls spread their wiles for detained 
navigators. And here this horrible man had surrounded himself with all 
that could corrupt virtue, gratify passion, tempt avarice, betray weakness, 
satisfy sensuality, and complete a picture of incarnate slavery in Dahomey. 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 


534 

When he sallied forth, an officer preceded him to clear the path; a 
fool or buffoon hopped beside him; a band of native musicians, and a 
couple of singers, screamed, at the top of their voices, the most fulsome 
praises of the mulatto. Numbers of vessels were of course required to 
feed this African nabob with doubloons and merchandise. Sometimes 
commanders from Cuba or Brazil would be kept months in his perilous 
nest, while their craft cruised along the coast, in expectation of human 
cargoes. At such seasons, no expedient was left untried for the enter¬ 
tainment and pillage of wealthy or trusted idlers. If da Sousa’s board 
and wines made them drunkards, it was no fault of his. If rouge-et-noir 
or monte won their doubloons and freight at his saloon, he regretted, but 
dared not interfere with the amusement of his guests. If the syrens 
of his harem betrayed a cargo for their favor, over cards, a convenient fire 
destroyed the frail warehouse after the merchandise was removed.” 
Canot, by avoiding the wiles of da Sousa and his dissipated sons, won 
the respect of the great man, so that, at the end of two months, he had 
secured a cargo of 480 prime negroes in the bowels of the Estrella. 

While at Ayudah, da Sousa received an invitation from the king of 
Dahomey to visit his court, with his guests, at the yearly sacrifice of 
human beings. Canot did not accompany the party ; but the English 
traveler, Duncan, some years later, (in 1845,) visited the court of Daho¬ 
mey, and in his travels gives an interesting account of his presentation 
to this most powerful of all the monarchs of the Negro tribes. His 
experiences there we give in his own language: 

u We arrived at Abomey, the capital of Dahomey, at three minutes 
past one o’clock, amid crowds of spectators, and were guided to an ex¬ 
cellent house prepared for me by Mayho, the king’s prime minister, an 
excellent old man, and very different to the generality of uncivilized 
Africans, not having that covetous and selfish disposition usual with 
them. On the following morning, after an early breakfast, I was fully 
equipped, and rode, attended by some of the king’s principal men, to 
the market-place, or parade-ground, in front of his palace or house. On 
our march to the market-place, we passed along part of the walls of the 
palace, which covers an immense space. The walls as well as houses 
are made of red, sandy clay, and on top of the walls, at intervals of 
thirty feet, human skulls were placed along their whole extent. On 
approaching nearer the market-place we beheld, on an elevated pole, a 
man fixed in an upright position, with a basket on his head, apparently 
holding it with both his hands. A little farther on we saw two more 
men, now in a state of decomposition, hung by the feet from a thick 
pole, placed horizontally on two upright poles, about twenty feet high. 

On the opposite side of the market were two more human bodies, in 
the same position as those I have just mentioned, with the exception that 
the bodies had been mutilated. This excited my curiosity, for decapi¬ 
tation is the favorite mode of execution in Abomey. I was informed 
that these men had been guilty of adulterous intercourse with one of 
the king’s wives, in consequence of which they were sentenced to be 
put to death by being beaten with clubs, and after death mutilated. 
The king had not yet arrived at the appointed place, where a high stool 
and footstool were placed for him under a huge umbrella, surrounded 
by about twenty more of nearly the same dimensions, forming a cres¬ 
cent—his own being in the center. He had requested, through Mayho, 
that I would salute him as I would the Queen of England, for he was 
anxious to become acquainted with European manners and customs. 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 


535 

Accordingly, upon a nearer approach, I saluted his Majesty according to 
military regulation, with which he seemed much pleased, and returned 
the compliment in a much more graceful manner than I expected. He 
then requested me to dismount and come to him. Upon which his prime 
minister, and four others next in rank, who were conducting me to his 
Majesty’s presence, desired me to halt till they paid their compliment to 
his Majesty. Forming inline in front of me, they completely prostrated 
themselves at full length, rubbing both sides of their faces on the ground, 
and kissing it. They then raised themselves on their knees, where they 
remained till they had completely covered themselves with dust, and 
rubbed their arms over with dirt as high as the shoulders. 

I was much surprised as well as disgusted with such absurd, abject 
humiliation. Their robes, which a few minutes before looked clean and 
respectable, were now, as well as their persons, smeared with dirt. My¬ 
self and the governor of Whydah fort were the only persons who did not 
observe the same degrading form. Even the soldiers, male and female, 
although under arms, observe the same humiliation. After this cere¬ 
mony, we stepped forward to the king, and he descended from his stool 
or throne, and shook me cordially by the hand, declaring his great satis¬ 
faction at having an Englishman in his country. He then proposed to 
drink my health. A table having already been prepared for me, a liquor- 
case was placed thereon, containing numerous different sorts of flasks 
and decanters, with as many sorts of liquors, namely, Hollands, rum, 
brandy, aniseed, claret, cherry brandy, and other cordials. During the 
time the king is drinking, his face is always concealed from observation 
by a number of handkerchiefs, held up round his head. At this moment 
a firing of muskets and beating of gong-gongs and hurrahing takes 
place. 

I was ushered to a seat close to the king, who paid me great attention, 
and showed every anxiety to give me information, and explain everything 
to me. It rnay be well, before proceeding further, to state that all his 
attendants and soldiers on guard near his person, sit down cross-legged; 
the soldiers with the butt-end of the musket resting on the ground, be¬ 
tween their legs, in a perpendicular position. During this time, troop 
after troop of female soldiers arrived, preceded by a band of very bar¬ 
barous music, similar to sheep-bells and drums, made from part of the 
trunk of a hollow tree, with some bullock or sheep-skin covered over the 
top of it. 

The king is a tall, athletic man, about forty-three years of age, with a 
pleashig expression and good features, but the top of his forehead falling 
back rather too much to meet the views of a phrenologist. His voice is 
good and manner graceful, in comparison with the barbarous customs of 
the country. 

In all directions, troops of female soldiers were now arriving, and tak¬ 
ing their stations at a distance, lying down or squatted, until they are 
called upon to come before his Majesty. No particular discipline is ob¬ 
served. The regiments severally form up in an irregular column, and 
the principal, or commanding officer, calls out the officers, who kneel on 
both knees, and cover their heads and bodies with dust. The comman¬ 
der then introduces, one after the other, each officer of this female regi¬ 
ment; and if any one has in any way distinguished herself, it is com¬ 
mented upon, and the party complimented and rewarded for her valor. 
This regiment belonged to the king’s son, in the government of a country, 
bearing an ensign or flag, ornamented with the figure of a lion. 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 


536 

After all the ceremony of compliments and boasting of valor is gone 
through, the officers fall in, and the whole regiment sing a song in com¬ 
pliment to the king. After that, any individual who chooses is allowed 
to step to the front, and declare her fidelity to his majesty, and as soon 
as one retires another takes her place, so that the ceremony becomes 
irksome. Sometimes the ceremony of one regiment passing occupies 
three hours. After all is over, the whole of the regiment kneel down, 
with the butt of their muskets on the ground and the barrel slanting 
back over the shoulder, and with both hands scrape up the dust and 
cover themselves with it. The dust being of a light red color, gives 
them a very singular appearance. Many have their heads entirely 
shaved, except a tuft resembling a cockade; others only shave a breadth 
of two inches from the forehead to the poll. After this ceremony, they 
all rise up from the stooping position, still on their knees, but body other¬ 
wise erect, and poising their muskets horizontally on their two hands, all 
join in a general hurrah. Suddenly, then, they rise up, throwing the 
musket sharply into one hand, holding it high in the air, at the same 
time giving another hurrah. The whole then shoulder muskets, and run 
off at full speed. Each individual runs as fast as she is able, so that it 
is a race with the whole regiment of six hundred women. It would 
surprise a European to see the speed of these women, although they 
carry a long Danish musket and a short sword each, as well as a sort of 
club. 

It may be well to give some account of the dress and equipments of 
these Amazons. They wear a blue and white striped cotton surtout— 
the stripes about one and a half inch wide—of stout native manufacture, 
without sleeves , leaving freedom for the arms. The skirt or tunic reaches 
as low as the kilt of the Highlanders. A pair of short trowsers is worn 
underneath, reaching two inches below the knee. The cartouch-box, 
or aghwadya , forms a girdle, and keeps all their dress snug and close. 
The cartouch-box contains twenty cartridges, about four times the 
quantity of that used in England, owing to the inferiority of the powder. 
It is very conveniently placed, being girded round the loins. These wo¬ 
men certainly make a very imposing appearance, and are very active. 
From their constant exercise of body, (for the women in all cases do the 
principal part of both domestic and agricultural labors here, as well as 
at other places,) they are capable of enduring much fatigue. 

Next came the king’s second son’s female soldiers, from a part called 
Kakagee’s country, in consequence of having the government of that 
country. These soldiers, about six hundred, went through the same 
ceremony as the others. His Majesty always anxiously explained every¬ 
thing to me, and sent to the palace for paper for me to make notes upon. 
During the day, about six thousand women-soldiers passed successively 
before the king, who frequently introduced the principal officers of this 
corps to me, relating their achievements. This seemed to give them 
great satisfaction. Among them, he introduced me to one of his princi¬ 
pal wives, a stout, noble-looking woman, of a light brown complexion. 
She commanded the whole of the king’s wives, who are all soldiers, 
amounting to six hundred, present on this occasion. 

Next morning, June 12th, as early as seven o’clock, I was again sum¬ 
moned to attend th* review. Some of the principal ministers came 
with me, to show me where to stand, to allow the passing soldiery to 
have a full view of king’s visitor, or king’s stranger, as they called me. 
The soldiers were now fast arriving from all quarters; each regiment 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 


537 

preceded by its band, whose instruments produced the most discordant 
sounds that can be imagined—drums, elephants’ teeth, bullock’s horns, 
and a sort of triangular iron tube, which they beat with a small stick, 
and which gave forth sounds like a sheep-bell. 

The commander rides in the center of his regiment, if provided with a 
horse, (which is not stronger than a Shetland pony,) with two men hold¬ 
ing him on. Others, who have no horses, are carried in hammocks. 
After about four thousand men had passed me, marching without any 
discipline or form, I returned to the king’s canopy, to await the com¬ 
mencement of the review. In a short time, the female soldiers made 
their appearance, in full marching order, with provisions, amounting to 
about seventeen hundred. This corps was preceded by its band. The 
drum is carried on the head, one end to the front and the other to the 
rear; the person beating it walks behind the carrier. The drum belong¬ 
ing to the corps was ornamented with twelve human skulls. Seven stan¬ 
dards are carried with this regiment, the tops of which are ornamented 
with human skulls. This regiment belongs to Megah, the king’s principal 
jailor. 

About two hundred marched past, as I have described, followed in 
succession by the king’s women, to-day amounting to six hundred, all 
from the king’s palace. These were headed by Dagbyweka. The 
drum was also ornamented by twelve skulls of traitors, or men caught 
in arms against the king. This corps observed certain regulations on 
the march, not customary with the others: nine women and an officer 
marched in front, as an advance guard; at a short interval fifty supporters; 
then followed the main body. One individual officer is always appointed 
to lead the attack, who is distinguished by a sword of different pattern. 
An attack is, if possible, always made in the night, or vgty early in the 
morning. Next followed the female soldiers from Apadomey, com¬ 
manded by Knawie, (or white man’s mother.) Next, Icandee people, a 
country distant one day’s journey to the W.N.W. of Abomey. 

After this procession, which consisted altogether of about eight thou¬ 
sand women, well-armed and clothed, had passed, the king asked me to 
go and see what his women soldiers were about to perform. I was 
accordingly conducted to a large space of broken ground, where fourteen 
days had been occupied in erecting three immense prickly piles of green 
bush. These three clumps, or piles, of a sort of strong briar or thorn, 
armed with the most dangerous prickles, were placed in line, occupying 
about four hundred yards, leaving only a narrow passage between them, 
sufficient merely to distinguish each clump appointed to each regiment. 
These piles are about seventy feet wide, and eight feet high. Upon 
examining them, I could not persuade myself that, any human being, 
without boots or shoes, would, under any circumstances, attempt to pass 
over so dangerous a collection of the most efficiently armed plants I had 
ever seen. Behind these piles already mentioned, were yards, or large 
pens, at the distance of three hundred yards, fenced with piles seven 
feet high, thickly matted together with strong reeds. Inclosed therein 
were several hundred slaves belonging to the king. 

It may be well to state that this affair was entirely got up to illustrate 
an attack upon a town, and the capture of prisoners, who are of course 
made slaves. After waiting a short time, the Apadomey soldiers made 
their appearance at about two hundred yards from, or in front of the first 
pile, where they halted with shouldered arms. In a few seconds, the 
word for attack was given, and a rush was made toward the pile with a 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 


538 

speed beyond conception, and in less than one minute the whole body had 
passed over this immense pile, and had taken the supposed town. Each 
of the other piles was passed with equal rapidity, at intervals of twenty 
minutes, after which we again returned to our former station in the mar¬ 
ket-place. Here we found his Majesty waiting for us. He anxiously 
inquired how I was pleased with the performance of his female soldiers, 
and asked if I thought the same number of Englishwomen would perform 
the same. I, of course, answered no: we had no female soldiers in 
England, but we had females who had, individually and voluntarily, 
equally distinguished themselves. 

In a short time after our return, the Apadomey regiment passed, on 
their return, in single file—each leading, in a string, a young male or 
female slave, carrying also the dried scalp of one man supposed to have 
been killed in the attack. On all such occasions, when a person is killed 
in battle, the skin is taken from the head, and kept as a trophy of valor. 
I counted seven hundred scalps pass in this manner. The captains of 
each corps, in passing, again presented themselves before his Majesty, 
and received the king’s approval of their conduct. After all had passed, 
each regiment again formed in column before the king, and each officer was 
presented to me, and their deeds of valor recorded for which they were 
promoted. No promotion takes place unless merited on account of some 
act of distinguished merit. When the king’s household troop or regiment 
formed up, his Majesty asked me if I observed the form of an animal 
worn on the white cotten skull-cap of this corps. I replied in the affir¬ 
mative. This animal, he informed me, was killed by some of his women 
when in the bush, during the last war, a few months ago; and he had 
ordered the figure to be worn on the cap as a badge of distinction. 

One officer o%this corps of king’s soldier-wives was introduced to me. 
Her name was Adadimo. This female had, during the two last years’ 
war, taken, successively, each year a male prisoner, for which she was 
promoted, and his Majesty had also presented her with two female slaves. 
Adadimo is a tall, thin woman, about twenty-two years of age, and good- 
looking for a black, and mild and unassuming in appearance. The king 
also introduced her to an Ashantee prince and some attendants, who 
were here on a visit. After presenting Adadimo to the Ashantees, he 
addressed her and the regiment to the following effect, the regiment 
being now on their knees:—-He told them I was one of the Queen of 
England’s soldiers, sent on a friendly mission or visit, to collect informa¬ 
tion respecting his kingdom; and he himself felt proud and much grati¬ 
fied to be able to inform them all of the circumstance, more especially 
as he could assure them that the Queen of England was the greatest and 
most powerful sovereign in the world, and far surpassed all countries in 
war, as well as in the manufacture of guns and cloth, the two British 
articles best known in the country. He repeated that the highest possi¬ 
ble compliment was paid to Adadimo, by her being introduced to me, 
and having her name registered in my book. During this speech, she 
remained on her knees, and returned me repeated thanks. The same 
example was followed by the whole regiment. 

Next, came a regiment belonging to a country called Ginoa, com¬ 
manded by a female of the same name. This regiment consisted only 
of three hundred women. This corps make no prisoners, but kill all. 
After all this ceremony was over, the principal male officers prostrated 
themselves, and went through the regular form of harangue, as if this 
review had been actual service'. They informed his Majesty that they 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN*SLAVE-TRADER. 


539 

were happy to congratulate him upon the return of his victorious army, 
and capture of a great number of slaves. 

His Majesty, then turning to me, addressed me in a loud voice, to the 
following effect: “ You come from the greatest and richest country in 
the world, and I am truly gratified at seeing you in my country. The 
only thing I regret is that so few Englishmen come to see me. I should 
at all times feel proud to do anything in my power to accommodate an 
Englishman, and endeavor to make him comfortable in my country. I 
am aware,” he added, u that I have not in my power all the necessaries 
required by Englishmen, but if I were more frequently visited by them, 
I would take care to procure everything necessary for their comfort. 
You have traveled much in Africa, and from what you have seen you are 
now aware that I am as far superior iu Africa, as England is to Spain or 
Portugal.” 

Before breaking up, the king assembled all his principal officers, and 
introduced them to me, describing their rank and office. After many 
introductions, the principal officers were desired to drink the Queen of 
England’s health. This was to be drunk out of a human skull: appa¬ 
rently, not long before, it had been useful to the original possessor. 
However, as this was considered the highest compliment that can be paid 
to any person, I drank my sovereign’s health from the bony goblet. The 
king also joined. I then proposed his Majesty’s health, which was drunk 
from the same vessel. This concluded th*e second day’s performance. 

I may be permitted to make a few remarks on the army of women. It 
is certainly a surprising sight in an uncivilized country. I had, it is true, 
often heard of the king’s female soldiers, but now I have seen them, all 
well armed, and generally fine, strong, healthy women, and doubtless 
capable of enduring great fatigue. They seem to use theHong Danish 
musket with as much ease as one of our grenadiers does his firelock, 
but not, of course, with the same quickness, as they are not trained to 
any particular exercise, but, on receiving the word, make an attack like 
a pack of hounds, with great swiftness. Of course they would be use¬ 
less against disciplined troops, if at all approaching to the same numbers. 
Still, their appearance is more martial than the generality of the men; 
and if undertaking a campaign, I should prefer the females to the male 
soldiers of this country. From all I have seen of Africa, I believe the 
King of Dahomey possesses an army superior to any sovereign west of 
the Great Desert. 

June 13th.—To-day I attended at the king’s house or palace. After 
passing through two quadrangles of about sixty yards by thirty, we 
entered the principal square. This square is formed, of three sides, 
of houses, or long sheds, and on the opposite side to the principal 
part or side is a high wall of clay, with human skulls placed at short 
intervals on the top. All the quadrangles were filled with a mob of 
armed men, some sitting, some lying down asleep, others walking about 
smoking. 

After I was comfortably seated, his Majesty advanced toward me to drink 
my health, which was accompanied with loud hurrahs from his people. 
After I had partaken of some eatables, the day’s amusements commenced. 
All the principal men in his Majesty’s service were ordered to the front. 
They were all dressed in their most gaudy dresses, of various shapes 
and colors, according to the taste of the wearer; but all of the head men 
wore silver gauntlets, and a profusion of beads and anklets, generally 
made of a common small irrfn chain, in substance similar to a horse- 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 


540 

collar chain used in England, but the links merely closed, not welded. 
Others of lower rank, or second, as they are called, (for each head man 
has his second,) were dressed in their military dress. Several of the 
principal men were also disguised in masks and clown’s dresses, who 
performed antics and all manner of buffoonery. Some had on masks 
resembling the head of a bear, others that of a monkey, Some also 
displayed a pair of silver horns, fixed on the forehead by a bandeau. 
About ten yards in front of the place where his Majesty lay, three 
skulls were placed on the ground, forming an equilateral triangle, about 
three feet apart. At a little distance from the three last named skulls, 
a calabash was placed, containing several skulls of. distinguished men 
taken or killed in war. 

Near the king were placed several large staffs, or walking-sticks, with 
a skull fixed on the upper end of each, the stick passing through the 
skull so as to leave about seven inches of the stick above the skull, for 
the hand when walking. In a short time his Majesty expressed his 
wish to dance, which was approved of by all the people, by loud yells 
and the firing of muskets. The king then came forward to the open 
space in front, where the three skulls were placed, and commenced a 
dance, or rather elephantine motion, the movement being all in the hips 
and shoulders. After moving in this way about one minute, his Majesty 
took one of the staffs and skulls, and recommenced dancing among the 
three skulls, which lay on the ground. He then ordered a cigar to be 
lighted for him, and began smoking; at the same time he folded his 
arms, with the staff under his arms, resting with his breast on the top 
of the skull, and displaying all the indifference possible. He then ad¬ 
vanced toward me and gave me a cigar, and again desired me to drink 
his health. He asked me if I should like to be present on the following 
day to witness the execution of four (men) traitors, and proffered me 
the honor of being the executioner. This honor, however, I declined; 
but he pressed me, observing he should like to see the capability of my 
sword, which he admired much. I told him I would rather save a man’s 
life than take it, unless in my own defense. This he admitted was all 
very good, but asked me whether I should like to save the life of a per¬ 
son who had attempted the life of my Queen? I, of course, replied, 
Certainly not. Then he told me that the crime of these men was similar. 

14th.—Again I visited the palace, at half-past eight o’clock. The 
ceremonies of this day were nearly a repetition of those of yesterday, 
till the time arrived, (an hour before sunset,) when the four traitors 
were brought into the square for execution. They marched through the 
mob, or assembled crowd, apparently as little concerned as the specta¬ 
tors, who seemed more cheerful than before the prisoners made their 
appearance, as if they were pleased with the prospect of a change of 
performance. They were all young men of the middle size, and ap¬ 
peared to be of one family, or at least of the same tribe of Mahees, 
who are much better looking than the people of the coast. Each man 
was gagged with a short piece of wood, with a small strip of white 
cotton tied round each end of the stick, and passed round the pole. 
This was to prevent them from speaking. They were arranged in line, 
kneeling before the king. The head gong-gong man then gave four 
beats on the gong, as one—two, and one—two, the upper part of the 
gong being smaller than the lower, and thus rendering the sounds 
different, similar to our public clocks in England, when striking the 
quarters. - 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 


541 

After the four beats, the gong man addressed the culprits upon the 
enormity of their crime and the justice of their sentence. During this 
lengthened harangue the gong-gong was struck at short intervals, which 
gave a sort of awful solemnity to the scene. After this, the men were 
suddenly marched some distance back from his Majesty, who on this 
occasion refused to witness the execution. The men were then ordered 
to kneel in line about nine feet apart, their hands being tied in front of 
the body, and the elbows held behind by two men, the body of the culprit 
bending forward. Poor old Mayho, who is an excellent man, was the 
proper executioner. He held the knife or bill-hook to me, but I again 
declined the honor; when the old man, at one blow on the back of the 
neck, divided the head from the body of the first culprit, with the exception 
of a small portion of the skin, which was separated by passing the knife 
underneath. Unfortunately, the second mail was dreadfully mangled, for 
the poor fellow, at the moment the blow was struck having raised his 
head, the knife struck in a slanting direction, and only made a large wound; 
the next blow caught him on the back of the head, when the brain pro¬ 
truded. The poor fellow struggled violently. The third stroke caught 
him across the shoulders, inflicting a dreadful gash. The next caught 
him on the neck, which was twice repeated. The officer steadying the 
criminal, now lost his hold on account of the blood which rushed from the 
blood-vessels on all who were near. Poor old Mayho, now quite palsied, 
took hold of the head, and after twisting it several times round, separated 
it from the still convulsed and struggling trunk. During the latter part 
of this disgusting execution the head presented an awful spectacle, the 
distortion of the features, and the eyeballs completely upturned, giving 
it a horrid appearance. 

The next man. poor fellow, with his eyes partially shut and head 
drooping forward near to the ground, remained all this time in suspense; 
casting a partial glance on the head which was now close to him, and 
the trunk dragged close past him, the blood still rushing from it like a 
fountain. Mayho refused to make another attempt, and another man 
acted in his stead, and at one blow separated the spinal bone, but did not 
entirely separate the head from the body. This was finished in the same 
manner as the first. However, the fourth culprit was not so fortunate, 
his head not being separated till after three strokes. The body afterward 
rolled over several times,when the blood spurted over my face and clothes. 
The most disgusting part of this abominable and barbarous execution was 
that of an old ill-looking wretch, who, like the numerous vultures, stood 
with a small calabash in his hand, ready to catch the blood from each indi¬ 
vidual, which he greedily devoured before it had escaped one minute 
from the veins. The old wretch had the impudence to put some rum in 
the blood and ask me to drink; at that moment I could with good heart 
have sent a bullet through his head. 

From this period I passed my time heavily, rarely taking any exercise, 
on account of the ridiculous custom of being obliged to turn out of the 
road if any of the king’s wives should meet you. They are in all parts 
of the town and neighborhood, employed on different domestic occupations, 
but principally in carrying food in immense gourds or calabashes on the 
head, containing provisions for the king’s ministers and principal men, 
who, although they live in their own houses with their families, yet are 
all furnished with food by the king, which is prepared in the palace. 

The approach of the king’s wives is always announced by the ringing 
of a small bell, which is carried by a female servant or slave, who invaribly 


542 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 


precedes them. The moment this bell is heard all persons, whether 
inale or female, turn their backs, but. the males must retire to a certain 
distance. In passing through the town this is one of the most intolerable 
nuisances. Several other customs exist, one or two of which it may be 
well to mention. On passing many different places, either in hammock 
or on horseback, the traveler is obliged to get out and walk, and upon 
passing out of the town from Dahomey toward the coast, are a sort of 
custom-houses, where your pass is demanded. This is all very well, 
but the nuisance does not end here. Should you have a number of fowls 
as presents in Dahomey, (which is mostly the case,) and should any one 
of the cocks crow in passing, or while you wait to be interrogated by the 
appointed officer, the cock is seized as the king’s property; or if more 
than one crow, the offenders, as many as they may be, are seized. 

We now return to Canot, who regretted that when he left Ayudah, on 
the return voyage, that he had no interpreter to make the necessary com¬ 
munications with the slaves. They soon became discontented, one threw 
himself into the sea, and another choked himself to death, and apprehen¬ 
sions soon began to be felt that the slaves would revolt. One afternoon, 
when a part of the slaves were on deck, a sudden squall arose, and all 
hands were summoned by the boatswain’s whistle to take in sail. Seizing 
the opportunity amid the confusion of the gale, they poured upon the deck, 
and about forty stout fellows armed with staves of broken water-casks, or 
clubs of wood, found in the hold, with savage yells and passion-excited 
visages, rushed upon the crew. A terrible fight occurred; several of 
the sailors were laid prostrate, bleeding upon the deck, and the contest for 
awhile seemed doubtful; but firearms in the hands of white men fighting 
for life, were too much for ignorant savages with clubs only, and the 
latter, after several discharges, were driven into the hold. The crew now 
had leisure to attend to the vessel, which was in peril of foundering in the 
squall—the sails, ropes, tacks and sheets were in the greatest disorder, flap¬ 
ping and dashing about in wild confusion. As soon as below, a battle took 
place among the slaves, which was with difficulty quelled by firing in 
among them, and pouring scalding water on the combatants through holes 
bored for the purpose in the deck. A part only of the slaves had en¬ 
gaged in the rising, otherwise this bold stroke for liberty would have 
been successful. 

Canot now felt as if he lived with a pent up volcano. Terror reigned 
over all, and the lash was used with unmitigated severity. To add to 
his anxiety, a slave-boy, of a gentle nature, who had been drilled as a 
waiter in the cabin, was seized with that dreadful pestilence the smallpox. 
To prevent the disease from spreading, he was murdered by laudanum, 
and his body was thrown to its final resting-place in the depths of the 
ocean. As they approached the termination of their voyage, continuous 
storms and adverse winds prevailed. On the last two days they were 
chased by a British vessel of war, and only escaped capture by running 
the Estrella on to the beach, and with such force that the mainmast 
snapped like a pipe-stem. They were obliged in their haste to leave a 
part of their slaves to their pursuers, so close were they at their heels. 

Canot’s next voyage was taken in the Golden Eagle, a Baltimore 
clipper of elegant proportions. The voyage was disastrous. While in 
the river Salem, the Golden Eagle, with all her crew, was unexpectedly 
pursued and taken by a French war-vessel, and Canot was carried to 
France, and thrown into prison at Brest, where, after remaining a year or 
two, he was pardoned out by Louis Philippe, in consequence of some 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 


543 


illegality in his condemnation. True to his education, he was no sooner 
liberated than he made his way to the African coast, and entered the 
employment of the celebrated Pedro Blanco, at Gallinas. This man 
Blanco, the monarch of slave-traders, was a native of Spain. Carrying 
into the business in which he was engaged, all the far-reaching acumen 
of the most thorough merchant, he selected, for his seat of trade, a spot 
upon the African coast, where a short sluggish river empties into the 
Atlantic, by a perfect labyrinth of low, reed-covered islands, fronted by a 
bar perilous to navigation, and off which no vessel of war could, except 
in the most perilous weather, watch in safety this dismal spot, which 
slavery had selected for her recruiting station. Blanco's factories and 
barracoons were scattered about among the islands, and here and there, 
to the height of seventy-five or a hundred feet, rose telegraph stations, 
shaded by the sun and rain, on which lookouts were constantly sweeping 
the horizon with telescopes, to descry the approach of cruisers or slavers. 

Blanco lived in barbaric splendor, with his seraglio of favorites, and 
surrounded by the luxuries of every land. His ten or twelve barracoons 
contained each from one hundred to five hundred slaves. These slave- 
pens were formed of piles driven into the ground, strongly united by iron 
bands, thatched overhead, and closely guarded by armed Spaniards or 
Portuguese, whom dissipation and the malaria had given an aspect little 
less wretched than that of corpses. 

The advent of Canot at Gallinas, was in the year 1836. Blanco, a man 
of slender figure, swarthy face, and most graceful manners, had then 
passed fifteen years upon this spot. Three years later he left it for Cuba, 
a millionaire. The drafts of this Rothschild of man-merchants upon 
Europe or America, were as good as gold in Sierra Leone and Monrovia. 

A few years after the establishment of Blanco, the thousands of slaves 
sent away began to exhaust the vicinity; but the appetite for plunder was 
stimulated to such a degree, that the neighboring blacks supplied with 
powder by the factories, and enticed by their tempting merchandize, 
carried their hunts far inland. The multitudes, too ignorant to combine, by 
fighting them singly, fell an easy prey, and yet the demand continued 
until Don Pedro and his myrmidons established numerous branches along 
the coast, north and south, offshoots from the parent-den, and reaped a 
harvest greater than that of Californian gold. Various tribes were stim¬ 
ulated by, avarice, to war upon each other, with all the wild ferocity of 
African savages; so that down in the hold of many a slaver, as it steered 
its way across the broad Atlantic, have been shackled to the same bolt, 
two deadly enemies, while others have met in the same horrid union a 
long-lost son or brother, or, perhaps, parent, taken in war. In these wars 
among the natives, their soothsayers were ever consulted. The story is 
told of Amarar, a native chief of the Gallinas, who was besieged, and 
wished to make a sally, that his oracle informed him the moment would 
be propitious, as soon as he had stained his hands in the blood of his 
own son. Amarar, upon this, snatched his infant from its mother’s arms, 
cast it into a rice mortar, and with a pestle mashed it to death! Such is 
man in his wild state, left to the instincts of his own perverted nature. 

The familiarity of Canot with the slave-trade, in all its branches, was 
such that Blanco engaged him to establish a branch factory at New 
Seostris, an independant principality, under the control of Prince Free¬ 
man, a Bassa chief. Having erected a house and surrounded it with 
palisades, he purchased about seventy slaves, of an inferior quality, at an 
exorbitant price; and then sent for the chief to assist in shipping them, on 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 


544 

a slave-vessel that lay off the spot. To this request an impudent reply 
was borne to Canot by the son of the king, a lad of sixteen, which so 
enraged the former, that he gave the lad a blow that sent him bleeding 
and howling home. Shortly the whole black hive was in a great ferment; 
and, by a second messenger, word was sent Canot he must leave the 
place. Anticipating trouble, Canot landed some whites from his schooner, 
to assist in his defense. At evening, he placed a number of loaded 
muskets in a long trade-chest, which he used as a sofa, put an open keg 
of powder upon a table, concealed beneath a blanket, and then, laying a 
pair of double-barrelled pistols under his broad-brimmed hat, set a guard, 
and threw himself into his hammock for the night. In the morning, he 
was aroused by the war-drum and village bells, announcing the approach 
of the people. In a few moments his palisades were filled with armed 
and chattering savages. The Prince strutted pompously into the presence 
of Canot, attired only in the red coat of a British drummer, but without 
any trowsers. Canot received him cordially, and conducted him into his 
house. With some few preliminary words, Canot jerked off the blanket 
from the open powder, and aiming one pistol at the keg and the other 
at the Prince, defied him to order him off. At this, Freeman gave a 
sudden bound out of the house, followed by his body-guard, all in the 
extremest consternation. He subsequently, cringing as a whipped puppy, 
swore eternal fidelity to Canot. The oath was ratified over New England 
rum, and by sunset the slaves were duly shipped in the canoes of his 
people. 

Canot, when securely established, erected permanent buildings. The 
main structure was a large two story house, surrounded by broad 
verandahs, on the summit of which was a watch-tower, commanding a 
broad view of the ocean. Beside this, were stores, a private kitchen, 
one for slaves, a rice-house, servant’s-houses, a water depot, huts for 
single men, and slave-pens, guarded by cannon. The whole was sur¬ 
rounded by a lofty fence, with double gates. The center of the place 
was an open square, where, after their meals, the slaves, sometimes to the 
number of six or seven hundred, guarded by a few armed men, were 
accustomed to recreate themselves by dancing, singing, and drumming 
on tom-toms. 

New Seostris grew wonderfully under the new system of things. Two 
populous towns arose as if by magic, on the sandy beach, supplied with 
merchandize and employment by the factory. Prince Freeman’s memory 
of past grievances, and of old debts due his ancestors, received a sudden 
quickening, and expedition followed expedition to settle these old affairs. 

On Canot’s first arrival, the people were basely superstitious, and all 
classes liable to be accused upon any pretext, by the ju-ju-men or priests, 
who tested their innocence or guilt by giving the saucy-wood potion. 
Often when the removal of a sick wife, a superanuated parent., or a rich 
relative was desired, they would be accused of witchcraft, and as the 
potion could be graduated by the priest, death ensued when desired. As 
large numbers of innocent people were, by these means, constantly 
falling victims to avarice or malice, Canot determined to stop this abom¬ 
inable practice. He respectfully requested that the next person operated 
upon, should be brought to his barracoon. Shortly a Krooman accused 
of the death of his nephew by witchcraft, was delivered to Canot, and 
while the ju-ju-man was preparing the poisonous drink over a slow fire, 
he bribed him to make it of unusual strength, “for,” said he, “my own 
ju-ju says he is innocent, and I wish to ascertain the relative truth of our 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 


545 

soothsayers.” Just before the administration of the poison, Canot privately 
gave to the accused a strong dose of tartar-emetic, which caused him to 
throw up the venomous drink, almost the instant it was given. This 
established the innocence of the drinker, and overwhelmed the ju-ju-man 
with confusion. This result was soon noised about, and to the astonish¬ 
ment of the superstitious Africans. Ever after that, those who were to 
be subjected to this ordeal, were brought to Canot. He thus succeeded 
in saving many lives, ending eventually in a complete abandonment of 
the practice. 

Along the African coast, for a distance of many hundred miles, com¬ 
merce has given rise to a peculiar class of men, known as Kroomen and 
Fishmen. These are the native boatmen, without whose skill and boldness, 
merchandize could not be landed, nor slaves shipped from this part 
of Africa, on account of the terrific surf, which, even in the calmest 
weather, rolls in such tremendous combing waves, that a European or 
American boat could not live in it. Their canoes are made of logs of 
trees, hollowed out and sharpened at the ends: so indispensable are the 
services of the boatmen, that it is the aim of all slavers, traders, and men- 
of-war in these waters, to propitiate their favor. Among the first steps of 
Canot, when he went to New Seostris, was to obtain a little fleet of 
Kroomen, with whose aid it was seldom that the condition of the surf was 
such as to prevent him from shipping his cargoes. Off the more dan¬ 
gerous bar of Gallinas, all the skill of these boatmen, could not, at times, 
prevent boat load after boat load of slaves, from falling a prey to ravenous 
sharks. On one occasion while loading a single vessel, over one hundred 
slaves met this terrible death. 

At one period, Canot had been greatly annoyed by the continuous 
blockade of a cruiser. Finally, getting short of provisions, she steered 
for Sierra Leone, for a fresh supply. Canot dispatched a messenger, 
with the news, to his friend Don Pedro, at Gallinas; and in about two 
days thereafter, a clipper brig, sent with dispatch by him, with the well- 
known signal for a cargo, appeared in the offing. The moon was now at 
the full, and the surf so terrible as to render an attempt at shipment 
exceedingly perilous. But the absent cruiser was hourly expected, and 
there was no alternative, as the barracoons were literally crammed with 
slaves. By the stimulus of an extra reward, Canot persuaded the 
Kroomen to make the attempt, with the smallest boats, and the best rowers, 
while on shore stood a large number of the most expert swimmers, ready 
for a plunge whenever a canoe was upset by the breakers. They com¬ 
menced with the females, and had shipped seventy, when a strong wind 
set in from the ocean, and rolled in the breakers with such fury, that 
almost every other boat was upset, and negro after negro was rescued. 
Night now approaching, left still one-third of his slaves unembarked. 
Canot ran to and fro on the beach, in great excitement, encouraging, 
coaxing, and refreshing the boatmen and swimmers; but neither words, 
nor rum were of any avail, the exhausted boatmen were immovable. 
He was on the point of despair, when he suddenly thought of a quantity 
of false coral beads among his goods, just then all the rage with the Kroo 
girls. “ The smile of a lip has the same magical power in Africa, as 
elsewhere; and the offer of a coral bunch for each head embarked, 
brought all the dames and damsels of Seostris to his aid. Such a shower 
of chatter was never heard out of a canary cage. Mothers, sisters, 
daughters, wives, sweethearts, took charge of the embarkation, by coaxing 
or commanding their respective gentlemen; and before the sun’s rim 
35 


546 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 


dipped below the horizon, a few strands of false coral, or the kiss of a 
negro girl; sent one hundred more of the Africans into Spanish slavery.” 
The brig took flight in the darkness, and the next morning the cruiser 
appeared off the place, when Canot sent a Krooman aboard with his com¬ 
pliments, and an offer of his services if required! 

In one of his business visits to Digby, Canot was a witness of the 
fiendish ferocity of the native African, under the excitement of war. 
He had established a slave-factory at one of the two Digby towns, which 
was productive of a fatal quarrel between the respective chiefs, who 
were cousins, and had previously lived in harmony. Canot, on this oc¬ 
casion, had landed at sunset, at the neglected town, with a lot of merchan¬ 
dize, with a view to supply its chief with goods, and to establish a factory 
if the opening appeared favorable. Some time past midnight, he was 
aroused from his sleep by shrieks and volleys of musketry, and then in 
rushed the negro chief with an appeal to him, to rise and fly for life, that 
they had all been betrayed, and resistance was in vain. Canot remained 
where he was, knowing that he was in no personal danger; that he only 
would suffer a brief detention, and that if he attempted to escape, he 
might be slaughtered by mistake. The shouts of the savages grew nearer 
and nearer, as they rushed onward, murdering all they met, On coming 
to the door of the house in which Canot was, they battered it in, and 
Jenkin, their leader, with a lighted flambeau entered, and made his 
party their prisoners. u Of course,” says Canot, in relating the history 
of this transaction, u we submitted without resistance, for, although fully 
armed; the odds were so great in those anti-revolver days, that we would 
have been overwhelmed by a single wave of the infuriated crowd. The 
barbarian chief instantly selected our house for his head-quarters, and 
dispatched his followers to complete their task. Prisoner after prisoner, 
was thrust in. At times, the heavy mash of the war-club, and the cry 
of strangling women, gave notice that the work of death was not yet 
ended. But the night of horror wore away. The gray dawn crept 
through our hovel’s bars, and all was still, save the groans of wounded 
captives, and the wailings of women and children. 

u By degrees, the warriors dropped in around their chieftain. A 
palaver-house, immediately in front of my quarters, was the general 
rendezvous; and searcely a bushman appeared without the body of some 
maimed and bleeding victim. The mangled, but living captives were 
tumbled on a heap in the center, and soon every avenue to the square 
was crowded with exulting savages. Rum was brought forth in abundance 
for the chiefs. Presently, slowly approaching from a distance, I heard 
the drums, horns, and war-bells; and in less than fifteen minutes a pro¬ 
cession of women, whose naked black limbs were besmeared with white 
and yellow paint, poured into the palaver house, to join the beastly rites. 
Each of these devils was armed with a knife, and bore in her hand some 
cannibal trophy. Jenkin’s wife, a corpulent wench of forty-five, dragged 
along the ground, by a single limb, the slimy corpse of an infant, ripped 
alive from its mother’s womb. As her eyes met those of her husband, 
the two fiends yelled forth a shout of mutual joy, while the lifeless babe 
was tossed in the air, and caught as it descended on the point of a spear. 
Then came the refreshment, in the shape of rum, powder, and blood, 
whicli was quaffed by the brutes, till they reeled off, with linked hands 
in a wild dance, around the pile of victims. As the women leaped and 
sang, the men applauded and encouraged. Soon the ring was broken, 
and with a yell each female leaped on the body of a wounded prisoner, 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 


547 

and commenced the final sacrifice, with a mockery of lascivious embraces. 
In my wanderings in African forests, I have often seen the tiger 
pounce upon its prey, and with instinctive thirst, satiate its appetite for 
blood, and abandon the drained corpse; but these African negresses 
were neither as decent nor as merciful as the beasts of the wilderness. 
Their malignant pleasure seemed to consist in the invention of tortures 
that would agonize, but not slay. There was a devilish spell in the 
tragic scene, that fascinated my eyes to the spot. A slow, lingering, 
tormenting mutilation was practiced on the living, as well as on the dead; 
and, in every instance, the brutality of the women exceeded that of the 
men. I cannot picture the hellish joy with which they passed from body 
to body, digging out eyes, wrenching olf lips, tearing the ears, and slicing 
the flesh from the quivering bones; while the queen of the harpies crept 
amid the butchery, gathering the brains from each severed skull, as a 
bonne bouche for the approaching feast. After the last victim yielded 
his life, it did not require long to kindle a fire, produce the requisite 
utensils, and fill the air with the odor of human flesh! Yet, before the 
various messes were half-broiled, every mouth was tearing the dainty 
morsels with shouts of joy, denoting the combined satisfaction of usage 
and appetite! In the midst of this appalling scene, I heard a fresh cry 
of exultation, as a pole was borne into the apartment, on which was 
impaled the living body of the conquered chieftain’s wife. A hole was 
quickly dug, the stave planted, and fagots supplied; but before afire 
could be kindled, the wretched woman was dead, so that the barbarians 
were defeated in their hellish scheme of burning her alive! I do not 
know how long these brutalities lasted, for I remember very little after 
this last attempt, except that the bushmen packed in plaintain leaves 
whatever flesh was left from the orgie, to be conveyed to their friends 
in the forest. The butchery made me sick, dizzy, paralyzed. I sank 
on the earth benumbed with stupor; nor was I roused until nightfall, 
when my Kroomen bore me to the conqueror’s town, and negotiated our 
redemption for the value of twenty slaves.” 

Canot remained at New Seostris several years, carrying on an ex¬ 
tensive business. He was finally compelled by the English cruisers to 
break up his establishment; and, after various adventures, he sunk all he 
had acquired from his ill-spent years of labor. The same talents and 
zeal applied to any of the ordinary avocations, which inure to the benefit 
of man at large, might have yielded him an ample competence, and the 
sweet solace in old age, of a well-spent life. His memoirs edited by 
Brantz Mayer, of which this fragmentary and scattered abridgment, can 
give but an inadequate idea, is a work full of instruction in African 
aboriginal life, and in the characteristics of those atrocious men, who 
live by trade in human blood. 

Singular as it may seem, the slave-trade at the present hour is exten¬ 
sively carried on, though not near so much as it was a few years since. 
It was the cessation of the last great European war, which assembled 
the matured villainy of the world on the African coast, to re-establish, 
the slave-trade. This traffic had been suspended during the later years 
of the contest, as England and the United States had abolished it; the 
former, too, swept almost the whole European marine from the ocean. 
About twenty years since, England, by treaties with different slave-trading, 
powers, obtained permission to capture vessels outward bound for Africa,, 
when fitted for the slave-trade, as well as after they had taken in their 
cargoes. This, however, did not apply to American vessels, or those- 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 


548 

protected by the American flag. If a vessel, other than American, was 
found on the African coast with slave-irons, and with a slave-deck laid 
for packing slaves, she was seized and condemned. By this arrangement, 
with a vigorous squadron, over a thousand slavers were captured in the 
course of the ten years ensuing. 

The efforts of the British squadron were seconded by those of France 
and the United States. “ France had withdrawn from the treaty, stipu¬ 
lating the right of search , and sent a squadron of her own to prevent 
French vessels from engaging in the slave-trade; and the United States 
which never has surrendered and never will surrender the inviolability 
of her own fag to a foreign power, guaranteed in 1842, to keep a squad¬ 
ron on the coast. These with other subsidiary means , in 1849, had 
reduced the exportation of slaves from 105,000 to 37,000 annually. And 
since that period the trade has lessened, until in Brazil, the greater slave 
mart, it has became almost extinct; although, at times, it has been carried 
on briskly with Cuba. 

“ The subsidiary means alluded to, arose out of the presence of the 
squadrons, and would have had no effect without them. They consist in 
arrangements on the part of England, with some of the native powers, 
to join in checking the evil, and in substituting the legal trade; and in 
conversion of the old slave-factories and forts, into positions defensive 
against their former purpose. These measures have also prepared the 
way for the establishment of Christian missions, as well as permitted to 
legitimate traffic, its full development. As the missions grow, the slave- 
trade diminishes, and legitimate trade advances.” 

“ Trade of all kinds was originally an adjunct to the slave-trade. 
Cargoes were to be sold where they could find a purchaser. Gold, ivory, 
dye-stuffs and pepper, were the articles procured on the coast. All of 
these are from exhaustible sources. The great vegetable productions of 
the country, constituting heavy cargoes, have but lately come inlo the 
course of commerce. The heavier articles now in demand, require 
more industry with hands, and a settled life. Trade thus becomes in¬ 
consistent with slavery, and hostile to it; and the more so, as it becomes 
more dependent on the collection of oil, ground-nuts, and other produces 
of agriculture. Covering the coast now with trading establishments 
excludes the slaver. The efforts of the squadrons were necessary to 
carry out this proceeding, for commerce needed to be protected against 
the piracies of the slaver afloat, and robbery by the slaver on shore. 

Exposure to capture, gave origin to the barracoons. A slaver could 
no longer leisurely dispose of her cargo, at different points, in return 
for slaves, who happened to be there. The crime now required con¬ 
cealment and rapidity. Wholesale dealers on shore, had to collect suf¬ 
ficient victims for a cargo, to be taken on board at a moment’s notice. 
This required that the slaver should arrive at the station, with arrange¬ 
ments previously made with the slave-factor, ready to “ take inor that 
she should bring over a cargo of goods in payment for slaves. 

“ In the case of falling in with British cruisers, an American slaver 
was inviolate, on presenting her register or sea-letter, as a proof of 
nationality, and could not be searched or detained. But the risk of 
falling in with American cruisers, especially if co-operating with the 
British, led to the disguise of legal trading; with a cargo corresponding 
to the manifest, and all the ship’s papers in form. 

The American flag became in these ways deeply involved in the slave 
traffic. In the presence of British, or other foreign cruisers, only vessels 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 


549 

known to be slavers, to this day, run but little danger of capture, for the 
Star Spangled Banner is a protection against the search necessary for 
proof. In 1844 our minister to Brazil, stated: “It is a fact not to be 
disguised or denied, that the slave-trade is almost entirely carried on 
under our flag, in American built vessels, sold to slave-traders here, 
chartered for the coast of Africa, and there sold, or sold here—delivered 
on the African coast. And, indeed, the scandalous traffic could not be 
carried on to any great extent, were it not for the use made of our flag, 
and the facilities given for the chartering of our vessels, to carry to the 
coast of Africa, the outfit for the trade, and the material for purchasing 
slaves.” 

“ Captain Smith, a slave-trader, who was arrested in New York, in 
1854, for being engaged in this traffic, has made the astonishing statement, 
that twenty or thirty slavers annually sail from that port— that New York 
is the chief port in the world for the slave-trade: there are strong grounds 
for believing in the truth of these allegations. An officer of an American 
war-vessel, writing from off Sierra Leone, in 1845, says: “ The English 
are doing everything in their power to prevent the slave-trade; and keep 
a force of thirty vessels on this coast, all actively cruising. It is extremely 
difficult to get up these rivers to the places where the slavers are. In 
these streams, almost concealed by the trees, the vessels lie, and often 
elude the strictest search; but when they have taken on board their 
living cargo, and are getting out to sea, the British are very apt to seize 
them, except, alas! when they are protected by the banner of the United 
States .” 

As the right of search can never be given up by the United States, 
and as our cruisers have not the right to search suspected vessels, sailing 
under foreign flags, the only course for the complete suppression of the 
traffic, is for the vessels of the two principal maritime nations, the United 
States and Great Britain, to cruise in company for the detection of 
slavers; and this, to some extent, is at the present time practiced. 

“ Civilized governments are now very generally united in measures 
for the suppression of the slave-trade. The coast of Africa is rapidly 
closing against it. The American and English colonies secure a vast 
extent of sea coast against its revival. Christian missions at many points 
are inculcating the doctrines of divine truth, which by its power upon the 
hearts of men, is the antagonist to such cruel unrighteousness. 

“ The present is an interesting period in the history of the world. 
Changes are rapid and irrevocable. Circumstances illustrative of the 
condition of our race, as it has been, are disappearing rapidly. The 
helplessness, and artlessness, and the make shifts of barbarism, are 
becoming things of the past. There is, perhaps, no region of the earth 
which is now altogether beyond the reach of civilized arts. Shells, and 
flints, and bows, and clubs, and bone-headed spears are everywhere 
giving way to more useful or more formidable implements. Improvements 
in dress, and tools, and furniture, will soon be universal. The history of 
man as he has been, requires, therefore, to be written now, while the 
evidence illustrative of it, has not altogether vanished. 

“ The changes of the last three centuries have, to only a slight degree, 
influenced the African races. An inaccessible interior, and a coast 
bristling with slave-factories, and bloody with slaving cruelties, probably 
account for this. The slight progress made, shows the obduracy of the 
degradation to be removed, and the difficulty of the first steps needed 
for its removal. Wherever the slave-trade or its effects penetrated, there, 


ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADER. 


550 

of course, peace vanished, and prosperity became impossible. This evil 
affected not only the coast, but spread warfare, to rob the country of its 
inhabitants, far into the interior regions. There were tribes, however, 
uninfluenced by it, and some of these have gained extensive, although 
but temporary authority. Yet nowhere has there been any real civilization. 
It is singular that these people should have rested in this unalloyed bar¬ 
barism for thousands of years, and that there should have been no native- 
born advancement, as in Mexico, or Peru, or China; and no flowing in 
upon its darkness, of any glimmering of light, from the brilliant progress 
and high illumination of the outside world. It has been considered 
worthy of notice, that a few years ago, one of the Veys had contrived a 
cumbrous alphabet to express the sounds of his language; but it is surely, 
to an incomparable degree, more a matter of surprise, that centuries 
passed away in communication with Europeans, without such an attempt 
having been made by any individual, of so many millions, during so many 
generations of men. 

“The older state of negro society, therefore, still continues. With the 
exception of civilized vices, civilized arms, and some amount of civilized 
luxuries, life on the African coast, or at no great distance from it, remains 
now much the same as the first discoverers found it.” 

Christian commerce is, however, destined to effect great changes, even 
in the remotest parts of the African continent, and by creating new wants 
to open up avenues to industry, which will eventually develop and civilize 
her now degraded and barbarian people. Every part of our globe is to 
be, in time, penetrated by enlightened christianized industry, and 
wherever man may be, its surface is to be dotted with happy, virtuous 
homes. 


CONVICT 


LIFE IN AUSTRALIA. 


HOW THEY GET THERE, AND WHAT THEY GET WHEN THERE, TOGETHER WITH A NARRATIVE OF 
CONVICT LIFE IN NORFOLK ISLAND, THE PLACE FOR THOSE 


TOO BAD FOR BOTANY BAY. 


When a ragged boy, (says O’Connell,) lounging around the London 
Docks, Captain Salmon, of the ship Phoenix, took a fancy to me, and with¬ 
out the knowledge or consent of any of my friends, I shipped as cabin- 
boy on board his vessel. A short time after I joined her at Deptford, she 
moved down to Woolwich, to take in live freight; being chartered by 
Government for the transportation of female convicts to Botany Bay. 
The ship’s company, including the two extremes, officers and boys, num¬ 
bered about thirty-five. And her passengers were rising two hundred in 
number. 

No crime or worthlessness of character can destroy all feeling of pity, 
on the part of the philanthropist, for such unfortunates as render themselves 
amenable to the laws of their country. Indeed, as the worst conduct calls 
down the severest punishment, perhaps the vilest characters command 
more pity than those who are less guilty, and, consequently, liable to 
punishment less severe. But pity for women embarking for Port Jackson 
seems a waste of sympathy, as, just taken from jail, they seem rather 
giddily to rejoice in the anticipation of a change of scene, than to feel 
sorrow at the prospect of punishment. Taken from the very lowest haunts 
of vice and misery ; generally entirely destitute of self-respect, and ap¬ 
parently careless of everything but mere bodily comfort and ease; incapable, 
by habit, of appreciating anything but pleasure of the senses, they wore 
the outward seeming of careless indifference, or thoughtless merriment. 
Occasionally, among the crowd, there was a face the index of remorse, 
and a consciousness of degradation; or, perchance, of the remembrance 
of friends, and bitter grief at the loss of respectable standing. Such, 
however, were rare; in the chatter of the convicts, flash, obscenity, and 
profanity were the principal features. In dress they varied from the 
beggars’ rags of St. Giles’, to the tawdry finery of the aristocracy in vice: 
and there was not wanting even an occasional neat dress, which bespoke 
the wearer not all degraded. Over the faces of the whole there was 
more or less of the “ prison aspect,” a wanness, the effect of trial and 
confinement. 

After receiving her passengers, the Phoenix laid three or four days at 
Woolwich. The acquaintances and connections of the convicts were on 
board in crowds, bidding farewell, and bringing trifles to minister to the 
comfort of their erring friends during a long passage. Weeping, embra¬ 
cing, hysteric laughter, snatches of flash songs, ribaldry, affected mirth, 
and unaffected despondence, soon took the place of the general appearance 

(551) 

\ 



CONVICT LIFE IN AUSTRALIA. 


552 

of cheerfulness with which the convicts came from their places of confine¬ 
ment. The anchor is weighed, and the steamboat takes us in tow down 
the river. Handkerchiefs of all complexions are waving to the people 
who swarm in boats in our wake;—“Hip—hip—hip—hurra!”—three 
cheers for Botany Bay from the convicts, and a response from the water¬ 
men and the banks of the river. In a few hours the steamer left us ; 
we were in the channel. Two hundred female convicts, a little million 
to appearance in the snug quarters of the vessel, are not missed from 
among the swarms of the vile in modern Babylon. They are as a bucket 
from the ocean; and yet every one of these despised beings has friends; 
low, and probably vicious, but still affectionate. Feelings and sensibility 
they have too; blunted it may be, but still human. Their disappearance 
may be unnoticed by the spectator of the mass, but each of them leaves a 
void in the circle in which she has moved, though that may have been 
none of the purest. Weeping eyes follow the departure of the convict 
ship; aching hearts yearn after the guilty beings whom it is bearing to a 
distant and degrading place of exile. 

At Spithead we lay two days, and on the third weighed again, and made 
no harbor, till at the end of a five months’ passage we came to, in Sydney 
Cove. The convicts were divided into three general divisions, according 
to their sentences;—the sentenced for seven, those for fourteen, and those 
for life. The crew of the vessel lived in the steerage, the short sentenced 
convicts under the main hatch, the “lifers” forward; and forward of them, 
in what is, on board of merchant ships, the forecastle, is the “ sick bay,” 
or hospital. The berths, in tiers at the sides, accommodated six persons 
each; and the inmates of each berth formed a mess. The women were 
all compelled to muster, in divisions, on deck, at least once a day, in 
tolerable weather, one division at a time; and to insure this airing, neces¬ 
sary to health, female “boatswains” were appointed. It was the duty 
of these petticoat officers to compel cleanliness also. The provisions 
were similar in quality and kind to those furnished vessels of the navy. 
In lieu of “grog” a cheap wine was served out, which the prisoners were 
obliged to drink at the tub, to prevent hoarding, or selling to one another. 
The usual punishment for minor offenses was cutting off this allowance 
of wine; for the more refractory, a machine was contrived, similar in 
operation to the stocks, but more resembling a very straight sentry-box. 
The offender was locked into it, standing erect, and when it was closed 
upon her she could hardly move a limb. 

The passengers, after the first fortnight, were generally healthy, and, 
notwithstanding they were sentenced convicts, happy. The majority of 
them had been in England as poor as vicious; no change could, with them, 
have been for the worse, and the temperate and regular manner of living, 
attention to cleanliness, and relief from squalid poverty, made them happy 
even under what are usually thought the privations of the vessel. 

Land ho! from the foretop-gallant yard; land ho! on deck; and land ho! 
the hearts of two hundred women responded. It was four or five days 
after making the land before we could fetch the harbor. The first joy 
at the sight of land had changed, on the part of the women, to impatience, 
and from impatience to a sort of careless half despair, which did not a 
whit abate at sight of the rocky heads of Sydney Cove. When the head¬ 
land was doubled, and the romantic situations of gentlemen’s country seats, 
and then the settlement at Sydney, were spread before them, hope and 
expectation were awake again, and there was nothing in their deportment 
to remind the observer that they were unwilling emigrants. Vessels which 


CONVICT DIALECT. 


553 

have sickness on board are ordered to the quarantine ground; those which, 
as was our case, have no apparent sickness, other than the usual effects 
of a long passage, ride out a half quarantine outside the usual range of 
anchorage. People are not allowed to come on board, but all communi¬ 
cation is by no means cut off, as boats are continually along side, selling 
fresh provisions, bread, etc.,to the convicts. It may be well here to remark, 
that if a convict is discovered to have money to any considerable amount, 
it is taken from him or her, and deposited in a Savings Institution at Sydney, 
where it accumulates till the time of sentence expires. The conversations 
of the passengers with the boats along side are peculiar, and have a charac¬ 
ter which no greetings away from New South Wales can resemble. 
“Lord love’ee, Sal! is that you? and how long are ye lagged for?” 
k ‘ Only for seven years.” An Irish girl among our passengers was hailed 
by her mother, who had preceded her to this land of promise about two 
years. “Och, Mary!” cried the parent, “is it here I see you? and how 
long are ye lagged for?” “Only eighty-four months, mother.” “Och, 
my child, avourneen machree! It’s glad I am that you’re not lagged for 
seven years. “An’ where did ye l’ave Jemmy, my son ?” “He’s hanged, 
mother, the assize before they lagged me. An’ thin we brought him to 
St. Giles’, an a beauthiful corpse he made, only he had the black stroke 
roun’ his neck.” 

In about ten days after our arrival, the convicts were landed at the dock¬ 
yard, where they were inspected. Upon the arrival of a convict ship at 
Port Jackson, it is usual for such free residents as need domestics to make 
application at the superintendent’s office for them. These applications 
are first answered, then the unappropriated residue are sent to the factory 
at Paramatta, if females, if males, to the prisoners’ barracks. 

The Phoenix was condemned at Port Jackson, as unworthy, purchased 
by Government, and made a receiving ship for double convicts, sentenced 
to penal settlements. This discharged the crew, and I was taken into 
the employment of Mr. Charles Smith, with whom I remained about a 
year. Mr. Smith’s history was that of many of the free residents in New 
South Wales. Originally, 

“ He left his country for that country’s good.” 

Correct behavior procured him, at the end of three years, a “ticket of 
leave,” and at the end of his sentence he had collected a pretty little 
capital to commence the world with anew. Enterprise, shrewdness and 
industry, made him one of the wealthiest men in the colony. He was a 
large contractor for the supply of butcher’s meat to the government, for 
the soldiers and prisoners, and was one of the first, if not the very first, 
who succeeded in packing beef in New Holland; the climate, prior to his 
giving proof to the contrary, having been supposed an insuperable 
objection. 

Mr. Smith’s intercourse, as contractor, with the convicts, gave me 
unusual advantages for becoming acquainted with their discipline and 
situation, and, beside these, there were not wanting excellent opportuni¬ 
ties of observing the general character of the colony. There cannot be 
a better place than this to introduce notices of some other of the freed- 
men of the colony, who at the time of my residence there, 1820 to 1826, 
were prominent members of society. No secret is attempted to be made 
of the cause of one’s sojourn at Sydney. If two strangers meet in any 
situation wffiere conversation seems necessary, almost the first question 
exchanged is, “Are you free, or a transport?” The next may be, 


CONVICT LIFE IN AUSTRALIA. 


554 

“What were you lagged for, and for how long?” Freemen are sometimes 
foolish enough to take offense at a Botany Bay greeting. I was at first, 
but soon learned the folly of permitting any such sensitiveness to appear, 
and becoming acclimated, I ceased to feel it. 

Mr. Samuel Terry paid a pig for his passage from England to Sydney— 
that is to say, the pig purchased his passage. It is to be presumed how¬ 
ever, that the simple feat of “going a whole pig,” though reported as the 
ostensible cause of his transportation, could not have been the whole cause, 
Previous convictions and character must have affected his sentence, as it 
was, in flash phraseology, a winder. Nor did his acquisitive propensities 
cease upon his arrival, as it is in the memory of some of the colonists that 
the rich Samuel Terry has been whipped for stealing poultry. Growing, 
however, after awhile, to see the evil of his ways, he obtained by good 
conduct a ticket of leave; put his acquisitiveness under restraint, and 
became one of the wealthiest men in the colony. There was upon him 
the nominal restraint of a convict, but with his ticket of leave, and ticket 
of exemption, he was in effect free, excepting the single condition of 
remaining in Australia. To this however he had a stronger tie than 
government restriction, the proprietorship of one of the largest estates in 
the possession of any individual. He married, and sons and daughters 
were born unto him. Although his children may not be particularly 
anxious to perpetuate the family history, and care nothing about heraldry, 
they are not a whit the less respectable in Sydney from the slight circum¬ 
stance that their father is a winder. Mr. Terry is, or was, also connected 
with the whale fishery. 

Mr. Thomas Cooper was a sort of aristocrat among convicts. He was 
transported for fourteen years, his crime being purchasing stolen goods. 
The articles upon which he was convicted, were stolen from the wardrobe 
of the Prince of Wales. Upon gaining a ticket of leave, he commenced 
the manufacture of a sort of gin from Indian corn, and his name is identi¬ 
fied with the grocer’s vocabulary, “Cooper’s best” being as readily under¬ 
stood as Cogniac or Jamaica. Mr. Haynes, a proprietor of whale ships, 
a principal stay of the Methodist Church, and a local preacher, was a 
convict. 

Paramatta factory, situate about fourteen miles from Sydney, is the 
depot for female convicts before they are assigned as servants, and the 
place to which assigned servants are sentenced for punishment for light 
offenses, upon complaint of their masters; and wives upon complaint of 
their husbands. The manufacture of the cloth which makes the uniform 
of the convicts, male and female, and the making of it up into garments, 
supplies the convicts at Paramatta with employment. The factory is about 
two miles from the town of Paramatta. The convicts in the factory are 
divided into three classes; arranged, not with reference to their crimes 
before transportation, but to their conduct in the factory. All convicts, 
upon entering, are placed in the first class, in which their employment is 
needlework, and other comparatively light occupations. Infraction of the 
rules, or disobedience and disrespect to the government of the factory, 
degrades the convict to the next class. Here she is employed in carding, 
weaving, and other laborious employment. When convicts are degraded 
from the second to the third class, employment suited to their sex ceases; 
their heads are shaved, and they are set to breaking stone, wheeling earth, 
and cultivating the grounds about the factory. The government of the 
convicts at this institution is intrusted principally to a female, whose title 
is “The Matron.” 


MARRIAGE AMONG CONVICTS. 


555 

When a lady (these women always speak of each other as “ladies”) 
is, in the third class, incorrigible, solitary confinement in a cell, or a visit 
to the treadmill, is imposed as a punishment. Freed women, married 
ladies , and assigned servants, when recomitted to the factory, are placed 
in either class, as their offenses merit. Spirits and tobacco are forbidden 
the convicts in the factory. Wine, allowed as a cordial on the passage 
out, is also withdrawn, but the food is wholesome, and abundant. Indian 
corn meal stirred in boiling water, called in America hasty pudding, or 
mush, in Australia hominy, makes the breakfast. At dinner they have 
animal food and vegetables, and at supper “Scotch coffee,” i. e. burned 
corn. Convicts are discharged from the factory by three methods—tickets 
of leave at the expiration of half their time of sentence, tickets of exemp¬ 
tion upon the arrival of their husbands in the colony, and tickets of exemp¬ 
tion upon the application of a suitor, who must marry, forthwith, the 
damsel whose liberty he seeks. Sailors who have conceived a penchant 
for lady passengers on the voyage out, and are, also, upon their arrival in 
the country, so in love with it as to wish to remain, and legitimate settlers 
who have served out their sentences and taken grants of land, are usually 
the applicants for wives at the factory. Applications are often made by 
persons who come without any particular damsel in view; and obtaining 
a wife is pretty easy, from among a set of women who are ready to take 
anything for a husband, rather than remain at the factory. The exchange, 
on the part of the woman, is, however, only the exchange of a mild 
government for a despotic, as the husband can at any time turn her back 
to the factory by preferring a complaint. Consequently, the most frequent 
result of matches formed by a mere freak, or love not the most refined, 
on the one part, and the acceptance of any offer, rather than remaining 
in durance, on the other, is the remanding of the bride back to the factory 
and a shaved head. The advantage is altogether on the side of the hus¬ 
band, the wife’s sentence to the colony being standing evidence against 
her to corroborate his testimony. Grey-bearded old settlers, who have 
served out their sentences, and are ready to recommence the world on an 
Australian farm, need a wife to take care of the homestead. Debarred 
by character, ill personal appearance, and other disagreeables, from 
obtaining an assigned or freed woman to wife, these gentry seek in the 
factory a wife who will shut her eyes to the defects of a husband, be they 
ever so glaring, when by marriage she can again obtain “a home of her 
own.” Quarrels soon follow the tying of the nuptial knot, and a large 
proportion of the police cases are complaints preferred by husbands against 
wives, who have too soon let the motives of their marriage become 
apparent by their conduct. 

When an assigned servant woman is married, the consent of her master 
or mistress is first to be obtained. The form of proclaiming the bans in 
church is also, in such matches, adhered to. They are in every way 
more respectable, as the parties know each other some weeks at least. 
In such matches, the husband has also the right of turning his wife into 
the factory again; but in all cases he is bound to take her out when her 
term of punishment has expired. If he does not, her board is generally 
charged to him. 

Of a female convict ship I have spoken from observation. The ships 
used for the transportation of males are managed in like manner, except 
the additional precautions necessary for restraining men. The usual 
number of females conveyed in one ship is about ninety. Male convicts 
are usually ironed, or a majority of them, on the passage. At night a 


CONVICT LIFE IN AUSTRALIA. 


556 

strong grating separates each berth from the center of the hold, and a 
guard of about thirty men are always on duty. I believe the only instance 
on record of the capture of a convict ship, is that of the Jane Shore. 
That vessel carried female convicts who instigated the sailors to rise upon 
the officers. They took the vessel into Monte Video, but the usual fate of 
mutineers and runaways overtook them there. In addition to the security 
afforded by the presence of soldiers and other precautions, on board a 
male convict ship, the appointment of boatswains, or captains, to each mess, 
from among the convicts, is a farther assurance of safety. The jealousy 
thus created prevents concert among the prisoners; the performance of 
his duty makes the convict officer unpopular, and the creation of such a 
state of feud begets a jealousy which renders him vigilant. The food 
allowed the prisoners is good and abundant; lime juice, vinegar, and three 
or four gills of Spanish wine per week, are allowed for the prevention 
of scurvy. Under good officers, amusements are permitted as preventives 
of disease; sometimes private theatricals , and more frequently dancing. 
The convicts upon landing are marched to the prisoners’ barracks. 
There, such as are not immediately assigned to answer applications for 
servants or laborers, don the livery—a Paramatta suit, adorned with the 
initials “P. B.” and the broad arrow. 

The prisoners in direct custody of the government are employed about 
trades, if they are fortunate enough to have them, if not, in road gangs, 
and in breaking stone. Saturday is allowed to each prisoner to keep his 
person and clothing in order, and to earn money for himself, if he chooses 
to labor. Upon this day the weekly rations are served out; articles which 
bear keeping, sufficient for the next week, and tickets to obtain butcher’s 
meat and other perishable necessaries, at the stores of the contractors. 
At Wellington Valley, about a hundred and fifty miles from Sydney, is a 
station to which are sent convicts from the better classes of society; well 
educated men, convicted of such offenses as forgery, genteel swindling, 
or a single departure from rectitude, sufficient, indeed, to transport them, 
but not to sink them to a level with the representatives of St. Giles and 
Ratcliffe High Way. They are employed in agriculture, till such time 
as they have given evidence of reformation, or proof of the fact that the 
crime for which they were transported was an exception to their habitual 
mode of life. As opportunities offer, they are placed at the head of 
schools, and employed as clerks in the government offices. Thus are 
those who are supposed to possess some self-respect, allowed, as far as 
is compatible with punishment, to retain it; instead of being degraded to 
the standing of those who are known to be utterly vile. Appointment to 
schools, or secretaryships, makes them, in a manner, their own masters, 
and is a reposal of confidence which appeals to, while it nourishes their 
self-respect. Should one, however, despite these favorable circumstances, 
transgress by inebriation, theft, or other crime, all the respect at first paid 
to their circumstances is forfeited. They are more rigorously punished 
than common convicts, as they are supposed to sin against superior light 
and knowledge. Of the low rogues transgression is expected, and they 
are treated as if constant oversight and rigorous discipline was necessary 
as a thing of course; lighter peccadillos being winked at. The favored 
prisoners who abuse the privileges extended to them are punished for 
ingratitude, as well as the bare infraction of the law. They get longer 
sentences to the treadmill, to the iron-gang, and to the penal settlements, 
than more ignoble offenders, while their previous habits of life render 
any sentence to severe labor a double punishment. Labor on the road, 


HUNTING BUSHRANGERS. 


557 

which to a common convict is considered no extra punishment, is such to 
them. No system of human invention is without its defects. The reader 
will perceive that to carry out all the machinery of the colony, and the 
discipline of prisoners, a very large number of sub-overseers are necessary 

Wherever the experiment has been tried, it has been found that pro¬ 
moted bondsmen make cruel task-masters. The tyranny of these sub¬ 
agents of power overdoes the purposes of punishment, rendering men 
desperate, and driving them to attempt elopement, or, in the country phrase, 
to “take to the bush.” The first steps in an escape are by no means 
difficult, except to members of a chain-gang; as these, in addition to their 
irons, are watched by soldiers. Goaded by the arrogance and cruelty of 
their overseers, two or three prisoners, or more, concert an escape. 
There are constables 1 lodges outside the town, which the fugitives avoid 
by avoiding the highroad. This first difficulty surmounted, the runaways 
meet at an appointed rendezvous, and the first move is burglary. They 
surprise the house of some settler, or stock-keeper, and plunder it of such 
movables as can be most conveniently carried off; always taking care, if 
possible, to seize firearms. When armed, the fugitives organize themselves 
with others who have preceded, or who follow them to the bush, into 
banditti, robbing the market carts for food, and finding the little shelter 
which the climate renders necessary in caves and bark huts, like the 
natives. Some probably have method and wisdom enough to betake 
themselves into unfrequented parts of the interior, where they make 
clearings, build more substantial houses, and till the earth, upon which 
very little labor is necessary to produce sufficient for subsistence, and 
remain undiscovered. 

To return to the more usual fate of fugitives: in order to secure their 
apprehension, it is a standing rule that the apprehension, or the giving 
of information which shall lead to the apprehension, of four runaways, 
entitles a seven years convict to a ticket of leave; six entitles a fourteen 
years’; and eight, a life transport to the same reward. In some cases a 
handbill is issued, offering a ticket of leave, or a gratuity in money, to 
the person who shall bring in a notorious highwayman, burglar, or mur¬ 
derer, dead or alive. The reward is of course adapted to the situation 
of the person who apprehends the culprit, as a ticket of leave could not 
be given a free man. Sometimes a free pardon and passage to England 
is held out as an inducement. 

Trusty natives are created “bush constables.” These are about the 
only blacks who have guns and ammunition. The majority of the natives 
arc incapable of using them, and as they have no articles to offer in traffic, 
they could not obtain arms if they wished. The guns of the black consta¬ 
bles are given them by government, and they wear a brass plate, on which 
is inscribed the name of the wearer, the tribe he belongs to, and the cer¬ 
tificate of his office. These fellows pretended to follow a man by the 
scent, like a dog, and I have known several circumstances which would 
seem to prove their possession of some such faculty. The capture of a 
prisoner, and the surrender of him at the barracks, creates the black 
captor a bush constable, and he is presented his musket and brass plate. 
They get also a gratuity of some sort for each prisoner surrendered. 
Still another method of arresting runaways is, to disguise soldiers, and 
send them, in such squads as not to alarm suspicion, into the interior. It 
is however dangerous service. Bushrangers who have plundered a house, 
or a market cart, are burglars, or highway robbers, and of course liable, 
upon conviction, to death. Murder of their pursuers can subject them to 


CONVICT LIFE IN AUSTRALIA. 


558 

no worse punishment, and may procure their escape. The sale or gift 
of arms or ammunition to a bushranger is punishable by transportation to 
a penal settlement, or other heavy penalty; yet the fugitives provide them¬ 
selves in some way with arms, and encounters with them are by no means 
trifles, after they have been absent long enough to become desperate. 
The dead bodies of fugitives who fall in defending themselves are fre¬ 
quently brought into Sydney to be identified. Where a prisoner is retaken, 
if no robbery or murder is proved against him upon trial, and no attempt 
at forcible escape by the use of deadly weapons, he gets a sentence to a 
penal settlement, for the crime of running away. After this sentence is 
completed, he is returned to the barracks, on his original sentence, and 
serves out that; the time spent in the woods and in the penal settlement 
counting him nothing. If he has resisted the soldiers, or officers, with 
weapons, or if he be proved to have committed burglary, or highway 
robbery, he is hung. 

A “ticket of leave,” is a conditional pardon, granted to convicts after 
a series of years of good behavior in the colony. Those sentenced origi¬ 
nally for seven years, if convicted of no crime in New Holland, receive 
a ticket of leave at the end of three years; fourteen years’ transports at 
the end of six; and lifers at the end of eight or ten. Sometimes these 
tickets give the possessor the liberty of the whole continent, but more 
generally, only particular towns or districts. Unconditional pardon, or 
emancipation, seldom precedes the expiration of the sentence. “Ticket 
of leave” men are permitted to employ their time as they please, and are 
exempted from the spotted livery, as also are assigned servants. A 
“ticket of exemption” may be obtained by a male convict after two years 
of good behavior. This allows the receiver, if a barrack prisoner, to live 
out of the barracks with his wife. No extra ration is allowed him for her 
support, but only four days in the week are required of him for labor, 
the day extra being supposed, with his wife’s industry, sufficient for her 
support. In the discipline and punishment of convicts, the intervention 
of a magistrate is always customary. Complaint must be preferred to the 
police authorities, particularly in the case of assigned servants. One 
magistrate may inflict fifty lashes; a bench of two or more punish at 
discretion, by lashes, or the stocks, or the treadmill. Crimes of character 
meriting severer penalties, go before the higher court, at the quarter 
sessions, for final trial and sentence. 

For the offenses which come before the quarter sessions, the convicts 
are sentenced to iron-gangs, to penal settlements, and to death. “Penal 
settlements,” to which frequent allusion has been made, are the places 
to which criminals are sent after conviction, before a colonial court, of 
offenses which degrade them even below the Botany Bay standard. The 
life-sentenced double convicts are usually sent to Norfolk Island. This 
island has no harbor, and the residents upon it are allowed no communi¬ 
cation with the world, except such as is afforded by the arrival of new 
exiles. A strong guard prevents the landing of boats from any vessel, 
except those of the government. Prisoners sent here are, with few ex¬ 
ceptions, sentenced to a perpetual and irremediable exile from the world; 
tickets of leave and other indulgences are unknown, and I verily believe 
that many of the prisoners brought to Sydney from penal settlements for 
trial, commit crime to obtain that deliverance which is only reached by 
the gallows. The employment of the prisoners at penal settlements 
is calculated exclusively for punishment. Most of the males labor with 
irons on their legs. Indeed, the discipline of iron-gangs and of settlers 


MUTINY OFF NORFOLK ISLAND. 


559 . 

at penal stations differs only in name, and in the duration of the punishment. 
Impatient of control, and regardless of all consequences, they eagerly 
seize upon every opportunity of making their escape—with what fatal 
consequences let the following narrative, written by a gentleman for some 
time resident in Norfolk Island, bear witness: the whole may be relied 
upon as a true relation of facts. 

“On the northern side of Norfolk Island the cliffs rise high, and are 
crowned by woods, in which the elegant white wood and gigantic pine 
predominate. A slight indentation of the land affords a somewhat sheltered 
anchorage ground, and an opening in the cliffs has supplied a way to the 
beach by a winding road at the foot of the dividing hills. A stream of 
water, collected from many ravines, finds its way by a similar opening to 
a ledge of rock in the neighborhood, and, falling over in feathery spray, 
has given the name of Cascade to this part of the island. Off this bay, on 
the morning of the 21st of June 1842, the brig Governor Philip was sailing, 
having brought stores for the use of the penal establishment. It was one 
of those bright mornings which this hemisphere alone knows, when the 
air is so elastic that its buoyancy is irresistibly communicated to the spirits. 
At the foot of the cliff, near a group of huge fragments of rock fallen 
from the overhanging cliffs, a prisoner was sitting close to the sea, pre¬ 
paring food for his companions, who had gone off to the brig the previous 
evening with ballast, and who were expected to return at daylight with a 
load of stores. The surface of the sea was smooth, and the brig slowly 
moved on upon its soft blue waters. Everything was calm and still, when 
suddenly a sharp but distant sound as of a gun was heard. The man, 
who was stooping over the fire, started on his feet, and looked above and 
around him, unable to distinguish the quarter from whence the report 
came. Almost immediately he heard the sound repeated, and then dis¬ 
tinctly perceived smoke curling from the vessel’s side. His fears were 
at once excited. Again he listened; but all was hushed, and the brig still 
stood steadily in toward the shore. Nearer and nearer she approached; 
until, alarmed for her safety, the man ran to summon the nearest officer. 
By the time they returned, the vessel had wore, and was standing off from 
the land; but while they remained in anxious speculation as to the cause 
of all this, the firing was renewed on board, and it was evident that some 
deadly fray was going on. At length a boat was seen to put off from the 
brig, and upon its reaching the shore, the worst fears of the party were 
realized. The misguided prisoners on board had attempted to seize the 
vessel. They were but twelve in number, unarmed, and guarded by 
twelve soldiers and a crew of eighteen men; yet they had succeeded in 
gaining possession of the vessel, had held it for a time, but had been 
finally overpowered, and immediate help was required for the wounded 
and dying. 

June 21, 1842—My duty as a clergyman called me to the scene of 
blood. When I arrived on the deck of the brig, it exhibited a frightful 
spectacle. One man, whose head was blown to atoms, was lying near 
the forecastle. Close by his side a body was stretched, the face of which 
was covered by a cloth, as if a sight too ghastly to be looked upon; for 
the upper half of the head had been blown off. Not far from these, a 
man badly wounded was lying on the deck, with others securely handcuffed 
Forward, by the companion-hatch, one of the mutineers was placed, 
bleeding most profusely from a wound which had shattered his thigh; yet 
his look was more dreadful than all—hate, passion, and disappointed rage 
rioted in his breast, and were deeply marked in his countenance. I 


CONVICT LIFE IN AUSTRALIA. 


5G0 

turned away from the wretched man, and my eye shrunk from the sight 
which again met it. Lying on his back in a pool of blood, the muscular 
frame of a man whom I well knew was stretched, horribly mutilated. A 
ball had entered his mouth, and passing through his skull, had scattered 
his brains around. My heart sickened at the extent of carnage, and I was 
almost sinking with the faintness it produced, when I was roused by a 
groan so full of anguish and pain, that for a long time afterward its echo 
seemed to reach me. I found that it came from a man lying farther for¬ 
ward, on whose face the death-dew was standing, yet I could perceive 
no wound. Upon questioning him, he moved his hand from his breast, 
and I then perceived that a ball had pierced his chest, and could distinctly 
hear the air rushing from his lungs through the orifice it had left. I tore 
away the shirt, and endeavored to hold together the edges of the wound 
until it was bandaged. I spoke to him of prayer, but he soon grew insen¬ 
sible, and within a short time died in frightful agony. In every part of 
the vessel evidences of the attempt which had ended so fatally presented 
themselves; and the passions of the combatants were still warm. After 
attending those who required immediate assistance, I received the follow¬ 
ing account of the affair:— 

r JThe prisoners had slept the previous night in a part of the vessel 
appropriated for this purpose; but it was without fastening, or other means 
of securing them below. Two sentries were, however, placed over the 
hatchway. The prisoners occasionally came on deck during the night, 
for their launch was towing astern, and the brig was standing off and on 
until the morning. Between six and seven o’clock in the morning the 
men were called to work. Two of them were up some time before the 
rest. They were struck by the air of negligence which was evident on 
deck, and instantly communicated the fact to one or two others. The 
possibility of capturing the brig had often been discussed by the prisoners, 
among their many other wild plans for escaping from the island, and 
recently had been often proposed by them. The thought was told by 
their looks, and soon spread from man to man. A few moments were 
enough; one or two were roused from sleep, and the intention was hur¬ 
riedly communicated to them. It was variously received. One of them 
distrusted the leader, and intreated his companions to desist from so mad 
an attempt. It was useless; the frenzied thirst for liberty had seized 
them, and they were maddened by it. Within a few minutes they were 
all on deck; and one of the leaders rushing at the sentry nearest to him, 
endeavored to wrest from him his pistols, one of which had flashed in the 
pan as he rapidly presented it, and threw him overboard; but he was 
subsequently saved. The arms of the other sentry were demanded, and 
obtained from him without resistance. A scuffle now took place with two 
other soldiers who were also on the deck, but not on duty, during which 
one of them jumped over the vessel’s side, and remained for some time 
in the main chains; but upon the launch being brought along side, he 
went down into it. The other endeavored to swim ashore (for by t his 
time the vessel was within a gun-shot of the rocks;) but, encumbered by 
his great-coat, he was seen, when within a few strokes of the rock, to 
raise his hands, and uttering a faint cry to Heaven for mercy he instantly 
sunk. In the meanwhile, the sergeant in charge of the guard hearing 
the scuffling overhead, ran upon deck, and seeing some of the mutineers 
struggling with the sentry, shot the nearest of them dead on the spot. 
He had no sooner done so than he received a blow on the head, which 
rendered him for some time insensible. Little or no resistance was 


DEFEAT OF THE MUTINEERS. 


561 

offered by the sailors; they ran into the forecastle, and the vessel wnis in 
the hands of the mutineers. All the hatches were instantly fastened 
down, and every available thing at hand piled upon them. But now, 
having secured their opponents, the mutineers were unable to work the 
brig; they therefore summoned two of the sailors from below, and placed 
one of them at the wheel, while the other was directed to assist in getting 
the vessel off. The coxswain, a free man in charge of the prisoners, had 
the first onset taken to the rigging, and remained in the maintop with one 
of the men who refused to join in the attack. At this moment a soldier 
who had gone overboard, and endeavored to reach the shore, had turned 
back, and was seen swimming near the vessel. Woolfe, one of the con¬ 
victs, immediately jumped into the boat along side, and saved him. While 
this was the state of things above, the soldiers had forced their way into 
the captain’s cabin, and continued to fire through the gratings overhead 
as often as any of the mutineers passed. In this manner several of them 
received wounds. To prevent a continuance of this, a kettle of hot water 
was poured from above, and shortly afterward a proposal was made to the 
captain from the prisoners to leave the vessel in the launch, provided he 
handed up to them the necessary supplies. This he refused, and then 
all the sailors were ordered from below into the launch, with the intention 
of sending them ashore. Continuing to watch for the ringleaders, the 
captain caught a glimpse of one them standing aft, and, as he supposed, 
out of the reach. He mounted the cabin table, and almost at a venture 
fired through the woodwork in the direction he supposed the man to be 
standing. The shot was fatal; the ball struck him in the mouth, and 
passed through his brain. Terrified at the death of their comrades, the 
remainder were panic-struck, and instantly ran below. One of the leaders 
sprung over the taffrail, and eventually reached the launch. The sailor 
at the wheel, now seeing the deck almost cleared, beckoned up the cap¬ 
tain, and without an effort the vessel was again in their possession. In 
the confusion, a soldier who had been in the boat, and was at this moment 
with the sailors returning on deck, was mistaken for one of the mutineers, 
and shot by tbe sergeant. The prisoners were now summoned from their 
place of concealment. They begged hard for mercy; and upon condition 
of their quietly surrendering, it was promised to them. As the first of them 
in reliance upon this assurance, was gaining the deck, by some unhappy 
error he received a ball in his thigh, and fell back again. The rest 
refused to stir; but after a few moment’s hesitation, another of them 
ventured up, was taken aft by the captain, and secured. A third followed, 
and as he came up, he extended his arms, and cried, ‘I surrender; spare 
me.’ Either this motion was mistaken by the soldiers, or some of them 
were unable to restrain their passion, for at this instant the man’s head 
was literally blown off. The captain hastened to the spot and received 
the others, who were secured without further injury. 

When we reached the vessel, the dying, dead, and wounded were lying 
in every direction. In the launch astern, we saw the body of one wretched 
man who had leaped over the taffrail, and reached the boat -badly wounded; 
he was seen lying in it when the deck was regained, and was then pierced 
through with many balls. Nothing could be more horrible than his ap¬ 
pearance; the distortion of every feature, his clenched hands, and the 
limbs which had stiffened in the forms of agony into which pain had twisted 
them, were appalling. The countenance of every man on board bore 
evidence of the nature of the deadly conflict in which he had been engaged. 
In some, sullenness had succeeded to reckless daring, and exultation to 
36 


562 


CONVICT LIFE IN AUSTRALIA. 


alarm in others. Nothing could have been more desperate than such an 
attempt to seize the vessel. The most culpable neglect could alone have 
encouraged it; and it is difficult to conceive how it could have succeeded, 
if anything like a proper stand had been made by those in charge of her 
when it commenced. The wounded were immediately landed, and con¬ 
veyed to the hospital, and the dead bodies were afterward brought on shore. 
The burial-ground is close to the beech. A heavy surf rolls mournfully 
over the reef. The moon had just risen, when, in deep and solemn silence, 
the bodies of these misguided men were lowered into the graves prepared 
for them. Away from home and country, they had found a fearful ter¬ 
mination of a miserable existence. Perhaps ties had still bound them to 
the world; friends whom they loved were looking for their return, and, 
prodigals though they had been, would have blessed ihem, and forgiven 
their offenses. Perhaps even at that sad moment mothers were praying 
for their lost ones, whom in all their infamy they had still fondly loved. 
Such thoughts filled my mind; and when a few drops of rain at that moment 
descended, I could not help thinking that they fell as tears from heaven 
over the guilt and misery of its children. 

On the morning following the fatal occurrence, I visited the jail in which 
the mutineers were confined. The cells are small, but clean and light. 
In the first of them I found George Beavers, Nicholas Lewis, and Henry 
Sears. Beavers was crouching in one corner of the cell, and looking sul¬ 
len, and in despair. Lewis, who was walking the scanty space of the 
cell, seemed to glory in the rattle of his heavy chains; while Sears was 
stretched apparently asleep upon a grass mat. They were all heavily 
ironed, and every precaution had evidently been taken to prevent escape. 
The jail is small, and by no means a secure one. It was once a public 
house; and notwithstanding every effort to adapt it to its present purpose, 
it is not a safe or proper place of confinement. It is little calculated to 
resist any attempt to rescue the men, whose daring conduct was the sub¬ 
ject of high encomium among their fellow-prisoners, by whom any attempt 
to escape is considered a meritorious act. In the other cell I found 
Woolfe and Barry, the latter in great agony from an old wound in the leg, 
the pain of which had been aggravated by the heavy irons which galled it. 
All the prisoners, except Barry and Woolfe, readily acknowledged their 
participation in the attempt to seize the brig; but most solemnly denied 
any knowledge of a preconcerted plan to take her; or that they, at least, 
had attempted to throw the soldiers overboard. They were unwilling to 
be interrupted, and inveighed in the bitterest manner against some of their 
companions who had, they seemed to think, betrayed them; or, at least, had 
led them on, and at the moment of danger had flinched. The names of 
the surviving mutineers were John Jones, Nicholas Lewis, Henry Sears, 
George Beavers, James Woolfe, Thomas Whelan, and Patrick Barry. 

The depositions against them having been taken, all the men I have 
mentioned, with the exception of Jones and Whelan, who were wounded, 
were brought out to hear them read. The listened with calm attention, 
but none of them appeared to be much excited. Once only during the 
reading, Beavers passionately denied the statements made by one of the 
witnesses present, and was with difficulty silenced. His countenance 
at that moment was terribly agitated; every bad feeling seemed to mingle 
in its passionate expression. They were all young, powerful, and, with 
one or two exceptions, not at all ill-looking men. From the jail I pro¬ 
ceeded to the hospital, where the wounded men were lying. They had 
each received severe wounds in the thigh, and were in great agony. 


INTERESTING STORY OF A CONVICT. 5^3 

The violence of Jones was excessive. Weakened in some degree by an 
immense loss of blood, the bitterness of his spirit, nevertheless, exhibited 
itself in passionate bursts of impatience. He was occasionally convulsed 
with excessive pain; for the nerves of the thigh had been much lacerated, 
and the bone terribly shattered. His features were distorted with pain 
and anger, and occasionally bitter curses broke from his lips; yet there 
was something about his appearance which powerfully arrested my atten¬ 
tion—an evident marking of intellect and character, repulsive in its present 
development, yet in many respects remarkable. His history had been a 
melancholy one, and, as illustrative of many thousand others, I give it as 
I afterward received it from his lips. 

At eleven years of age he was employed in a warehouse in Liverpool 
as an errand-boy. While following this occupation, from which by good 
conduct he might have risen to something better, he was met in the street 
one day by the lad whom he had succeeded in this employment, and was 
told by him how he might obtain money by robbing the warehouse, and 
then go with him to the theater. He accordingly took an opportunity of 
stealing some articles which had been pointed out, and gave them to his 
companion, who, in disposing of them, was detected, and of course crimi¬ 
nated Jones. After remaining some weeks in jail, Jones was tried and 
acquitted; but his character being now gone, he became reckless, and 
commenced a regular career of depredation. In attempting another 
warehouse robbery, he was detected, and sentenced to twelve months’ 
imprisonment. By the time he was released from this, he was well tutored 
in crime, and believed that he could now adroitly perform the same rob¬ 
bery in which he had previously failed. He made the attempt the very 
night of his release from jail, and with temporary success. Subsequently, 
however, he was detected, and received sentence of transportation for 
seven years. He underwent this sentence, and an additional one in Van 
Diemen’s Land, chiefly at Port Arthur, the most severe of the penal 
stations there. From this place he, with Lewis, Moss, (who was shot on 
board the brig,) and Woolfe, having seized a whale-boat, effected their 
escape. During three months they underwent the most extreme hardships 
from hunger and exposure. Once they had been without food for several 
days, and their last hook was over the boat’s side; they were anxiously 
watching for a fish. A small blue shark took the bait, and in despair one 
of them dashed over the boat’s side to seize the fish; his leg was caught 
by one of the others, and they succeeded in saving both man and hook. 
They eventually reached Twofold Bay, on the coast of New South Wales, 
and were then apprehended, conveyed to Sydney, and thence sent back 
to Van Diemen’s Land; tried, and received sentence of death; but this 
was subsequently commuted to transportation for life to Norfolk Island. 
Jones often described to me the intense misery he had undergone during 
his career. He had never known what freedom was, and yet incessantly 
longed for it. All alike confessed the unhappiness of their career. 
Having made the first false step into crime, they acknowledged that their 
minds became polluted by the associations they formed during imprison¬ 
ment. Then they were further demoralized by thinking of the glory — 
such miserable glory!—attending a trial; and the hulks and the voyage 
out gave them a finished criminal training. The extent of punishment 
many of them have undergone during the period of transportation is almost 
incredible. I have known men whose original sentence of seven years 
has been extended over three times that period, and who, in addition to 
other punishment, have received five thousand or six thousand lashes. 


CONVICT LIFE IN AUSTRALIA. 


564: 

Alter many solemn interviews with the mutineers, I found them gradually 
softening. They became more communicative, and extremely anxious 
to receive instruction. I think I shall never forget one of the earliest of 
these visits to them. I first saw Sears, Beavers, and Jones. After a long 
and interesting conversation with them, we joined in that touching con¬ 
fession of sin with which the liturgy of the Church of England commences. 
As we knelt together, I heard them repeat with great earnestness—‘We 
have erred and strayed from Thy ways like lost sheep,’ etc. When we 
arose, I perceived that each of them had been shedding tears. It was 
the first time I had seen them betray any such emotion, and I cannot tell 
how glad I felt; but when I proceeded afterward to read to them the first 
chapter of Isaiah, I had scarcely uttered that most exquisite passage in 
the second verse—‘I have nourished and brought up children, and they 
have rebelled against me’—when the claims of God, and their violation 
and rejection of them; His forbearance, and their ingratitude, appeared 
to overwhelm them; they sobbed aloud, and were thoroughly overpowered. 

For a considerable time we talked together of the past; the wretched 
years they had endured; the punishments, and the crimes which had led 
to them; until they seemed to feel most keenly the folly of their sad 
career. We passed on to contrast the manner in which their lives had 
been spent, with what God and society required from them; their miserable 
perversion of God’s gifts, with the design for which He gave them, until 
we were led on to speak of hope and of faith; of Him who ‘willeth not 
the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness 
and live;’ and then the Saviour’s remonstrance seemed to arrest them— 
‘Ye will not come to me that ye might have life ;’ until at length the 
influences of the Holy Spirit were supplicated with earnestness and 
solemnity. These instructions, and such conversation, were daily repeated; 
and henceforth each time I saw them I perceived a gradual but distinct 
unfolding of the affections and the understanding. 

August .—The wounded men are much recovered, and the whole of the 
mutineers are now confined together in a large war$ of the jail. They 
have long received extreme kindness from the commandant, and are 
literally bewildered at finding that even this last act has not diminished 
the exercise of his benevolence. That anybody should care for them, or 
take such pains about them, after their violent conduct, excited surprise— 
at first almost amounting to suspicion; but this at length gave place to the 
warmest gratitude. They were, in fact, subdued by it. They read very 
much, are extremely submissive, and carefully avoid the slightest infringe¬ 
ment of the prison regulations. At first, all this was confined to the three 
men I have mentioned; but their steady consistency of conduct, and the 
strange transformation of character so evident in them, gradually arrested 
the attention of the.others, and eventually led to a similar result. 

They will be detained here until the case has been decided by the 
authorities in Sydney. They will probably be tried by a commission sent 
from thence to the island for the purpose. Formerly, however, prisoners 
charged with capital offenses here were sent up for trial; but (it is a 
horrible fact) this was found to lead to so much crime, that, at much 
inconvenience and expense, it was found absolutely necessary to send 
down a judicial commission on each important occasion, in order to 
prevent it. The mere excitement of a voyage, with the chances connected 
with it, nay, merely a wish to get off the island even for a time, led many 
men to commit crimes of the deepest dye in order to be sent to Sydney 
for trial. 


SEAR’S STORY OF HIMSELF. 


565 

Two months, therefore, at least, must intervene between the perpetration 
of the offense and their trial; and this interval is usually employed in 
similar cases in arranging a defense but too commonly supported by per¬ 
jury. In the present instance, I found not the slightest attempt to follow 
such a course. They declare that they expect death, and will gladly 
welcome it. Of their life, which has been a course of almost constant 
warfare with society, ending in remorseful feelings, they are all thoroughly 
weary, although only one of them exceeds thirty years of age. 

In addition to the ordinary services, Captain Maconochie each Sunday 
afternoon has read prayers to them, and has given permission to a few 
of their friends to be present. Singular good has resulted from it, both 
to the men and those who join in their devotions. At the conclusion of 
one of these services Sears stood up, and with his heart so full as scarcely 
to allow him utterance, to the surprise of every person there, he addressed 
most impressively the men who were present. ‘Perhaps,’ said he, ‘the words 
of one of yourselves, unhappily circumstanced as I am, may have some 
weight with you. You all know the life I have led; it has, believe me, 
been a most unhappy one; and I have, I hope not too late, discovered the 
the cause of this. I solemnly tell you that is because I have broken God’s 
laws. I am almost ashamed to speak, but I dare not be silent. I am 
going to tell you a strange thing. I never before was happy; I begin now, 
for the first time in my life, to hope. I am an ignorant man, or at least I 
was so; but I thank God I begin to see things in their right light now. 
I have been unhappily placed from my childhood, and have endured many 
hardships. I do not mention this to excuse my errors; yet if I had years 
since received the kindness I have done here, it might have been otherwise. 
My poor fellows, do turn over a new leaf; try to serve God, and you, 
too, will be happier for it.’ The effect was most thrilling; there was a 
death-like silence; tears rolled down many cheeks, which I verily believe 
never before felt them; and without a word more, all slowly withdrew. 

This man’s story is also a common, but painful one. At fifteen years 
of age he was transported for life as an accomplice in an assault and 
alleged robbery, of which, from circumstances which have since transpired, 
I have little doubt he was entirely innocent. During along imprisonment 
in Horsham jail, he received an initiation in crime, which was finished 
during the outward voyage. Upon his arrival in New South Wales, he 
was assigned to a settler in the interior, a notoriously hard and severe 
man, who gave him but a scanty supply of food and clothing, and whose 
aim seemed to be to take the utmost out of him at the least possible ex¬ 
pense. Driven at length to desperation, he, with three fellow-servants, 
absconded; and when taken, made a complaint to the magistrate before 
whom they were brought almost without clothes. Their statements were 
found to be literally correct; but for absconding they were sent to New¬ 
castle, one of the penal stations of New South Wales, where Sears remained 
nearly two years. At the expiration of that time he was again assigned, 
but unfortunately to a man, if possible, worse than his former employer, 
and again absconded. For this offense he was sent to Moreton Bay, 
another penal settlement, and endured three years of horrible severity, 
starvation, and misery of every kind. His temper was by this time much 
soured; and, roused by the conduct of the overseers, he became brutalised 
by constant punishment for resisting them. After this he was sent to 
Sydney, as one of the crew in the police-boat, of which he was soon made 
assistant coxswain. For not reporting a theft committed by one of the 
men under his charge, he was sentenced to a road party; and attempting 


CONVICT LIFE IN AUSTRALIA. 


566 

to escape from it, he was apprehended, and again ordered to Moreton 
Bay for four years more. There he was again repeatedly flogged for 
disobedience and resistance of overseers, as well as attempting to escape; 
but having most courageously rendered assistance to a vessel wrecked 
off the harbor, he attracted the attention of the commandant, who after¬ 
ward showed him a little favor. This was the first approach to kindness 
he had know since, when years before, he had left his home; and it had 
its usual influence. He never was again in a scrape there. His good 
conduct induced the commandant to recommend him for a mitigation 
of sentence, which he received, and he was again employed in the police- 
boat. The free coxswain of the boat was, however, a drtfnkard, and 
intrusted much to Sears. Oftentimes he roused the men by his violence, 
but Sears contrived to subdue his passion. At length, one night returning 
to the hut drunk, the man struck at one of crew with his cutlass, and the 
rest resisted and disarmed him. But the morning came; the case was 
heard; their story was disbelieved; and upon the charge and evidence 
of the aggressor, they were sent to an ironed gang, to work on the public 
roads. When Sears again became eligible for assignment, a person whom 
he had known in Sydney applied for him. The man must be removed 
within a fixed period after the authority is given. In this case, application 
was made a day beyond the prescribed time, and churlishly refused. 
The disappointment roused a spirit so untutored as his, and once again 
he absconded; was of course apprehended, tried, and being found with a 
man who had committed robbery, and had a musket in his possession, was 
sent to Norfolk Island for life. This sentence has, however, for meritorious 
conduct, been reduced to fourteen years; and his ready assistance during 
a fire which recently broke out in the military garrison here, might possibly 
have helped to obtain a still further reduction. He never, during those 
abscondings, was absent for any long period, and never committed any 
act of violence. His constant attempt seems to have been to reach Sydney, 
in order to affect his escape from the scene of so much misery. 

For some time past I have noticed his quiet and orderly conduct, and 
was really sorry when I found him concerned in this unhappy affair. His 
desire for freedom was, however, most ardent, and a chance of obtaining 
it was almost irresistible. He has since told me that a few words kindly 
spoken to himself and others by Captain Maconochie, when they landed, 
sounded so pleasantly to him—such are his own words—that he deter¬ 
mined from that moment he would endeavor to do well. He assures me 
that he was perfectly unconscious of a design to take the brig, until awoke 
from his sleep a few minutes before the attack commenced; that he then 
remonstrated with the men; but finding it useless, he considered it a point 
of honor not to fail them. His anxiety for instruction is intense; he listens 
like a child; and his gratitude is most touching. He, together with Jones, 
Woolfe, and Barry, were chosen by the commandant as a police-boat’s 
crew; and had, up to this period, acted with great steadiness and fidelity 
in the discharge of the duties required from them. Nor did I think they 
would, even now, tempting as the occasion was, have thought of seizing 
it, had it not been currently reported that they were shortly to be placed 
under a system of severity such as they had already suffered so much 
from. 

Woolfe’s story of himself is most affecting. He entered upon evil 
courses when very young; was concerned in burglaries when only eleven 
years of age. Yet this was from no natural love of crime. Enticed from 
his home by boys older than himself, he soon wearied of the life he led, 


TRIAL OF THE MUTINEERS. 


567 

and longed to return to his home and his kind mother. Oftentimes he 
lingered near the street she lived in. Once he had been very unhappy, 
for he had seen his brother and sister that day pass near him, and it had 
rekindled all his love for them. They appeared happy in their innocence; 
he was miserable in his crime. He now determined to go home and 
pray to be forgiven. The evening was dark and wet, and as he entered 
the court in which his friends lived, his heart failed him, and he turned 
back; but, unable to resist the impulse, he again returned, and stole under 
the window of the room. A rent in the narrow curtain enabled him to 
see within. His mother sat by the fire, and her countenance was so sad 
that he was sure she thought of him; but the room looked so comfortable, 
and the whole scene was so unlike the place in which he had lately lived, 
that he could no longer hesitate. He approached the door; the latch was 
almost in his hand, when shame and fear, and a thousand other vile and 
foolish notions, held him back; and the boy who in another moment might 
have been happy —tvas lost. He turned away, and I believe has never 
seen them since. Going on in crime, he, in due course of time, was trans¬ 
ported for robbery. His term of seven years expired in Van Diemen’s 
Land. Released from forced servitude, he went a whaling voyage, and 
was free nearly two years. Unhappily, he was then charged with aiding 
in a robbery, and again received a sentence of transportation. He was 
sent to Port Arthur, there employed as one of the boat’s crew, and crossing 
the bay one day with a commissariat officer, the boat was capsized by a 
sudden squall. In attempting to save the life of the officer, he was seized 
by his dying grasp, and almost perished with him; but extricating himself, 
he swam back to the boat. Seeing the drowning man exhausted, and 
sinking, he dashed forward again, diving after him, and happily succeeded 
in saving his life. For this honorable act he would have received a remis¬ 
sion of sentence; but ere it could arrive, he and five others made their 
escape. He had engaged with these men in the plan to seize the boat, 
and although sure of the success of the application in his favor, he 
could not now draw back. The result I have already shown. There 
were two more men concerned in the mutiny, who, with those I have 
mentioned, and those killed on board the brig, made up the number of 
the boat’s crew. But neither of these men came under my charge, being 
both Roman Catholics. 

At length the brig, which had been dispatched with an account of the 
affair, returned, and brought the decision of the governor of New South 
Wales. He had found it extremely difficult, almost impossible, to obtain 
fitting members for the commission, who would he willing to accept the 
terms proposed by the government, or trust themselves in this dreadful 
place, and therefore he had determined that the prisoners should be sent 
up for trial. The men were sadly disappointed at this arrangement. 
They wished much to end their days here, and they dreaded both the 
voyage and the distracting effect of new scenes. They cling, too, with 
grateful attachment to the commandant’s family, and the persons who, 
during their long imprisonment, had taken so strong an interest in their 
welfare. I determined to accompany them, and watch for their perseve¬ 
rance in well-doing, that I might counsel and strengthen them under the 
fearful ordeal I could not doubt they would have to pass. The same 
steady consistency marked the conduct of these men to the moment of 
their embarkation. There was a total absence of all excitement; one 
deep serious feeling appeared to possess them, and its solemnity was 
communicated to all of us. They spoke and acted as men standing on 


CONVICT LIFE IN AUSTRALIA. 


568 

the confines of the unseen world, and who not only thought of its wonders, 
but, better still, who seemed to have caught something of its spirit and 
purity. 

November .—The voyage up was a weary, and, to the prisoners, a very 
trying one. In a prison on the lower deck of a brig of one hundred and 
eighty-two tons, fifty-two men were confined. The place itself was about 
twenty feet square, of course low, and badly ventilated. The men were 
all ironed, and fastened to a heavy chain drove through iron rings let into 
the deck, so that they were unable, for any purpose, to move from the 
spot they occupied; scarcely, indeed, to lie down. The weather was also 
unfavorable. The vessel tossed and pitched most fearfully during a 
succession of violent squalls, accompanied by thunder and lightning. 
I cannot describe the wretchedness of these unhappy convicts: sick, and 
surrounded by filth, they were huddled together in the most disgusting 
manner. The heat was at times unbearable. There were men of sixty— 
quiet and inoffensive old men—placed with others who were as accom¬ 
plished villains as the world could produce. These were either proceeding 
to Sydney, their sentences on the island having expired, or as witnesses in 
another case, (a bold and wicked murder,) sent there also for trial. The 
sailors on board the brig were for the most part the cowardly fellows who 
had so disgracefully allowed the brig to be taken from them; and they, 
as well as the soldiers on guard, (some of them formed a part of the former 
one,) had no very kindly feeling toward the mutineers. It may be ima¬ 
gined, therefore, that such feelings occasioned no alleviation of their 
condition. In truth, although there was no actual cruelty exhibited, they 
suffered many oppressive annoyances; yet I never saw more patient 
endurance. It was hard to bear, but their better principles prevailed. 
Upon the arrival of the vessel in Sydney, we learned that the case had 
excited an unusual interest. Crowds assembled to catch a glimpse of the 
men as they landed; and while some applauded their daring, the great 
majority very loudly expressed their horror at the crime of which they 
stood accused. I do not think it necessary to describe the trial, which 
took place in a few days after landing. All were arraigned except Barry. 
The prisoner’s counsel addressed the jurors with powerful eloquence; 
but it was in vain: the crime was substantiated; and the jury returned a 
verdict of guilty against all the prisoners, recommending Woolfe to mercy. 

During the whole trial, the prisoners’ conduct was admirable; so much 
so, indeed, as to excite the astonishment of the immense crowd collected 
by curiosity to see men who had made so mad an attempt for liberty. 
They scarcely spoke, except once to request that the wounded man, who 
yet suffered much pain, might be allowed to sit down. Judgment was 
deferred until the following day. When they were then placed at the 
bar, the judge, in the usual manner, asked whether they had any reason 
to urge why sentence should not be pronounced upon them? It was a 
moment of deep solemnity; every breath was held; and the eyes of the 
whole court were directed toward the dock. Jones spoke in a deep clear 
voice, and in a deliberate harangue pointed out some defects in the evi¬ 
dence, though without the slightest hope, he said, of mitigating the sentence 
now to be pronounced on himself and fellows. Three of the others also 
spoke. Whelan said, ‘that he was not one of the men properly belonging 
to the boat’s crew, but had been called upon to fill the place of another 
man, and had no knowledge of any intention to take the vessel, and the 
part he took on board was forced upon him. He was compelled to act as 
he had done; he had used no violence, nor was he in any way a participator 


Entered according to Act of Congress, A. D. mdooclv, by H. Howe, in the clork's office of the 


Dist. Court of the U. S. for the S. Dist. of Ohio, 




JVITYYVYY^ 0 

Words cannot unfold.to view the terrors of a ship on fire, far out at sea. When the 
flames had got the mastery on board of the Prince, “dejection filled every mind; the 
consternation became general: nothing but sighs and groans were heard; even the animals on 


board uttered the 
towards heaven ; 
melancholy altern 


ae. 

most dreadful cries. Every one began to raise his hands and heart 
and, in the certainty of a speedy death, each was occupied only with the 
ative between the two elements ready to devour them.”—Page 572. 

























































EXECUTION OF THE MUTINEERS. 


569 

in any that had been committed.’ At the conclusion of the address to 
them, Jones, amid (he deep silence of the court, pronounced a most em¬ 
phatic prayer for mercy on his own soul and those of his fellow-prisoners, 
for the judge and jury, and finally for the witnesses. Sentence of death 
was then solemnly pronounced upon them all; but the judge informed 
Woolfe that he might hold out to him expectations that his life would be 
spared. They were then removed from the bar, and sent back to the 
condemned cells. 

I cannot say how much I dreaded my interview with them that day; 
for although I had all along endeavored to prepare their minds for the 
worst result, and they had themselves never for a moment appeared to 
expect any other than this, I feared that the realization of their sad ex¬ 
pectation would break them down. Hitherto there might have been some 
secret hope sustain* them. The convulsive clinging to life, so common 
to all of us, would now, perhaps, be more palpably exhibited. Entering 
their cells, 1 found them, as I feared, stunned by the blow which had now 
fallen on them, and almost overpowered by mental and bodily exhaustion. 
A few remarks about the trial were at length made by them; and from 
that moment I never heard them refer to it again. There was no bitter¬ 
ness of spirit against the witnesses, no expression of hostility toward the 
soldiers, no equivocation in any explanation they gave. They solemnly 
denied many of the statements made against them; but, nevertheless, the 
broad fact remained, that they were guilty of an attempt to violently seize 
the vessel, and it was useless debating on minor considerations. 

In the meantime, without their knowledge, petitions were prepared and 
forwarded to the judges, the governor, and executive council. In them 
were stated various mitigatory facts in their favor; and the meliorated 
character of the criminal code at home was also strongly urged. Every 
attention was paid to these addresses, following each other to the last 
moment. But all was in vain. The council sat, and determined that five 
of the men should be hanged on the following Tuesday. Whelan, who 
could have no previous knowledge of a plan to seize the vessel, together 
with Woolfe, was spared. The remaining four were to suffer. The 
painful office of communicating this final intelligence to these men was 
intrusted to me, and they listened to the announcement not without deep 
feeling, but still with composure. 

It would be very painful for me to dwell on the closing scene. The 
unhappy and guilty men were attended by the zealous chaplain of the 
jail, whose earnest exhortations and instructions they most gratefully 
received. The light of truth shone clearly on the past, and they felt that 
their manifold lapses from the path of virtue had been the original cause 
of the complicated misery they had endured. They entreated forgiveness 
of all against whom they had offended ; and in the last words to their 
friends were uttered grateful remembrances to Captain Maconochie, his 
family, and others. At the place of execution, they behaved with fortitude 
and a composure befitting the solemnity of the occasion. Having retired 
from attendance upon them in their last moments, I was startled from the 
painful stupor which succeeded in my own mind, by the loud and heavy 
bound of the drop as it fell, and told me that their spirits had gone to God 
who gave them.” 

Our reverend informant, in closing his narrative, adds some reflections 
on the painful nature of the tragedy in which he was called to lend his 
professional assistance. He laments the general harshness of penal dis¬ 
cipline, and attributes the last fatal crime of these men to the recent arrival 


CONVICT LIFE IN AUSTRALIA. 


570 

of orders which shut out all hope of any improvement being effected in 
their circumstances, however well they might behave. Previously, he 
says, while hope was permitted to them, they had conducted themselves 
well. While agreeing in his humane views, we would, at the same time, 
avoid appearing as the apologists of crime under any circumstances. 

It may be seen from the history of the unhappy men before us, that 
transportation is, at the best, equivalent to going into slavery—that the 
convict loses, for the time, his civil rights. Torn from his family, his 
htwne, and his country, he is placed at the disposal of the crown and its 
functionaries; can be put to any kind of labor, however repugnant to his 
feelings; dressed in the most degrading apparel; chained like a wild beast 
if refractory; and on the commission of any new offense, while in this 
state of servitude, he is liable to fresh punishment by transportation to 
such penai settlements as Norfolk Island. It might almost be said that no 
man in his senses would voluntarily commit crimes which would expose 
him to the risk of so terrible an infliction as that of transportation, even 
for the limited period of seven years. But, alas! men who have entered 
on a course of error, forgetful of every duty which they owe to themselves 
and society, can scarcely be said to be in possession of a sound mind ; 
and they go on floundering from one degree of vice to another. 


THE 


HORRORS OF A FIRE AT SEA, 


AS SHOWN BY THE ACCOUNT OF THE BURNING OF THE PRINCE, A FRENCH VESSEL, 
RELATED BY LIEUTENANT FONDA, ONE OF HER OFFICERS, TO WHICH IS ANNEXED A 
SERIES OF ARTICLES 


ILLUSTRATING LIFE ON THE DEEP. 


Our vessel, the Prince, was in the service of the French East India 
Company. She was commanded by M. Morin, and left the harbor of 
L’Orient, bound to Pondicherry, on the 19th of Fehruary, 1752. 

After a fortunate navigation, we met with a disaster, of which the 
strongest expressions can convey but a faint idea. In this narrative, I 
shall confine myself to a brief detail, as it is impossible to recollect all 
the circumstances. The 26th of July, 1752, being in the latitude of 8° 
30' south, and in longitude 5° west, the wind being south-west, just at 
the moment of taking the observation of the meridian, I had repaired to 
the quarter where I was going to command, when a man informed me 
that a smoke was seen to issue from the pannel of the greater hatchway. 

Upon this information, the first lieutenant, who kept the keys of the 
hold, opened all the hatchways to discover the cause of an accident, the 
slightest suspicion of which frequently causes the most intrepid to 
tremble. The captain, who was at dinner in the great cabin, went upon 
deck, and gave orders for extinguishing the fire. I had already directed 
several sails to be thrown overhoard, and the hatchways to be covered 
with them, hoping by these means to prevent the air from penetrating 
into the hold. I had even proposed, for the greater security, to let in 
the water between decks to the height of a foot, but the air, which had 
already obtained a free passage through the openings of the hatchways, 
produced a very thick smoke that issued forth in abundance, and the 
fire continued gradually to gain ground. The captain ordered sixty or 
eighty of the soldiers under arms to restrain the crew, and prevent the 
confusion likely to ensue in such a critical moment. These precautions 
were seconded by M. de la Touche, with his usual fortitude and prudence. 
That hero deserved a better opportunity of signalizing himself, and had 
destined his soldiers for other operations more useful to his country. 
All hands were now employed in getting water; not only the buckets, 
but likewise the pumps were kept at work, and pipes were carried from 
them into the hold; even the water in the jars was emptied out. The 
rapidity of the fire, however, baffled our efforts and augmented the 
general consternation. The captain had already ordered the yawl to be 
hoisted overboard, merely because it was in the way; four men, among 
whom was the boatswain, took possession of it. They had no oars, but 
called out for some, when three sailors jumped overboard and carried 
them what they stood so much in need of. These fortunate fugitives 
were required to return; they cried out that they had no rudder, and 
desired a rope to be thrown them; perceiving that the progress of the 
flames left them no other resource, they endeavored to remove to a 

(571) 



572 INCIDENTS OF OCEAN LIFE. 

distance from the ship, which passed them in consequence of a breeze 
that sprung up. 

All hands were still busy on board; the impossibility of escaping, 
seemed to increase the courage of the men. The master boldly ven¬ 
tured down into the hold, but the heat obliged him to return; he would 
have been burnt, if a great quantity of water had not been thrown over 
him. Immediately afterward, the flames were seen to issue with 
impetuosity from the great pannel. The captain ordered the boats over¬ 
board, but fear had exhausted the strength of the most intrepid. The 
jolly-boat was fastened at a certain height, and preparations were made 
for hoisting her over; but, to complete our misfortunes, the fire, which 
increased every moment, ascended the mainmast with such violence and 
rapidity as to burn the tackle; the boat pitching upon the starboard guns, 
fell bottom upward, and we lost all hope of raising her again. We now 
perceived that we had nothing to hope from human aid, but only from 
the mercy of the Almighty. Dejection filled every mind; the conster¬ 
nation became general; nothing but sighs and groans were heard; even 
the animals we had on board, uttered the most dreadful cries. Every 
one began to raise his heart and hands toward heaven; and in the cer¬ 
tainty of a speedy death, each was occupied only with the melancholy 
alternative between the two elements ready to devour us. 

The chaplain, who was on the quarter-deck, gave the general absolu¬ 
tion, and went into the gallery to impart the same to the unhappy 
wretches who had already committed themselves to the mercy of the 
waves. What a horrible spectacle! Every one was occupied only in 
throwing overboard whatever promised a momentary preservation; coops, 
yards, spars, everything that came to hand, was seized with despair, and 
disposed of in the same manner. The confusion was extreme; some 
seemed to anticipate death by jumping into the sea, others, by swimming, 
gained the fragments of the vessel; while the shrouds, the yards, and 
ropes, along the side of the ship, were covered with the crew, who 
were suspended from them, as if hesitating between two extremes, 
equally imminent and equally terrible. 

Uncertain for what fate Providence intended me, I saw a father 
snatch his son from the flames, embrace him, throw him into the sea, 
then following himself, they perished in each other’s embrace. I had 
ordered the helm to be turned to starboard; the vessel heeled, and this 
maneuver preserved us for some time on that side, while the fire raged 
on the larboard side, from stem to stern. Till this moment I had been 
so engaged, that my thoughts were directed only to the preservation of 
the ship; now, however, the horrors of a twofold death presented them¬ 
selves; but, through the kindness of heaven, my fortitude never forsook 
me. I looked round and found myself alone upon the deck. I went 
into the round-house, where [ met M. de la Touche, who regarded 
death with the same heroism that procured him success in India. 
u Farewell, my brother and my friend,” said he, embracing me. “ Why, 
where are you going?” replied I. “ I am going (said he) to comfort 
my friend Morin.” He spoke of the captain, who was overwhelmed 
with grief at the melancholy fate of his female cousins, who were 
passengers on board his ship, and whom he had persuaded to trust 
themselves to sea in hen-coops, after having hastily stripped off their 
clothes, while some of the sailors, swimming with one hand, endeavored 
to support them with the other. The yards and masts floating around 
the ship, were covered with men struggling with the waves; many of 


INCIDENTS OF OCEAN LIFE. 


573 

them perished every moment by the balls discharged by the guns, in conse¬ 
quence of the flames, a third species of death that augmented the horrors 
by which we were surrounded. With a heart oppressed with anguish, I 
turned my eyes away from the sea. A moment afterward, I entered the 
starboard gallery, and saw the flames rushing with a horrid noise through 
the windows of the great cabin and round-house. The fire approached, 
and was ready to consume me; my presence was then entirely useless 
for the preservation of the vessel, or the relief of my fellow-sufferers. 

In this dreadful situation, I thought it my duty to prolong my life a 
few hours, in order to devote them to my God. I stripped off my 
clothes with the intention of rolling down a yard, one end of which 
touched the water; but it was so covered with unfortunate wretches, 
whom the fear of drowning kept in that situation, that I tumbled over 
them and fell into the sea, recommending myself to the mercy of Provi¬ 
dence. A stout soldier, who was drowning, caught hold of me at this 
extremity; I employed every exertion to disengage myself from him, 
but without effect. I suffered myself to sink under the water, but he 
did not quit his hold ; I plunged a second time, and he still held me 
firmly in his grasp; he was incapable of reflecting that my death would 
rather hasten his own than be of service to him. At length, after 
struggling a considerable time, his strength was exhausted in consequence 
of the quantity of water he had swallowed, and perceiving that I was 
sinking the third time, and fearing lest I should drag him to the bottom 
along with me, he loosed his hold. That he might not catch me again, 
I dived and rose a considerable distance from the spot. 

This first adventure rendered me more cautious in future ; I even 
shunned the dead bodies, which were so numerous, that, to make a free 
passage, I was obliged to push them aside with one hand, while I kept 
myself above water with the other. I imagined that each of them was 
a man who would assuredly seize me and involve me in his own destruc¬ 
tion. My strength began to fail, and I was convinced of the necessity of 
resting, when 1 met a piece of the flag-staff. To secure it, I put my 
arm through the noose of the rope, and swam as well as I was able. I 
perceived a yard floating before me, when I approached and seized it 
by the end. At the other extremity, I saw a young man scarcely able 
to support himself, and speedily relinquished this feeble assistance that 
amounted to a certain death. The sprit-sail yard next appeared in sight; 
it was covered with people, and I durst not take a place upon it without 
asking permission, which my unfortunate companions cheerfully granted. 
Some were quite naked, and others in their shirts; they expressed their 
pity at my situation, and their misfortune put my sensibility to the 
severest test. 

M. Morin and M. de la Touche, both so worthy of a better fate, 
never quitted the vessel, and were doubtless buried in its ruins. Which¬ 
ever way I turned my eyes, the most dismal sights presented themselves. 
The mainmast, burnt away at the bottom, fell overboard, killing some, 
and affording to others a precarious resource. This mast I observed 
covered with people, and abandoned to the impulse of the waves; at 
the same moment, I perceived two sailors upon a hen-coop with some 
planks, and cried out to them, “ My lads, bring the planks and swim to 
me.” They approached me, accompanied by several others; and each 
taking a plank, which we used as oars, we paddled along upon the yard, 
and joined those who had taken possession of the mainmast. So 
many changes of situation presented only new spectacles of horror. 


INCIDENTS OF OCEAN LIFE. 


574 

I fortunately here met with our chaplain, who gave me absolution. 
We were in number about eighty persons, who were incessantly 
threatened with destruction by the balls from the ship’s guns. I saw 
likewise on the mast two young ladies, by whose piety I was much edi¬ 
fied; there were six females on board, and the other four were, in all 
probability, already drowned or burned. Our chaplain, in this dreadful 
situation, melted the most obdurate hearts by his discourse, and the 
example he gave of patience and resignation. Seeing him slip from the 
mast and fall into the sea, as I was behind him, I lifted him up again. 
u Let me go,” said he, “ I am full of water, and it is only a prolongation 
of my sufferings.” u No, my friend,” said I, u we will die together, 
when my strength forsakes me.” In his pious company, I awaited 
death with perfect resignation. I remained in this situation three hours, 
and saw one of the ladies fall off the mast with fatigue and perish; she 
was too far distant for me to give her any assistance. When I least 
expected it, I perceived the yawl close to us; it was then five o’clock, 
p. m. I cried out to the men in her that I was their lieutenant, and 
begged permission to share our misfortune with them. They gave me 
leave to come on board, upon condition that I would swim to them. It 
was their interest to have a conductor, in order to discover land ; and 
for this reason my company was too necessary for them to refuse my 
request. The condition they imposed upon me was perfectly reasonable; 
they acted prudently not to approach, as the others would have been 
equally anxious to enter their little bark, and we should all have been 
buried together in a watery grave. Mustering, therefore, all my strength, 

I was so fortunate as to reach the boat. Soon afterward, I observed the 
pilot and master, whom I had left on the mainmast, follow my example; 
they swam for the yawl, and we took them in. This little bark was the 
means of saving the ten persons who alone escaped out of nearly three 
hundred. 

The flames still continued to consume our ship, from which we were 
not more than half a league distant; our too great proximity might 
prove pernicious, and we, therefore, proceeded a little to windward. 
Not long after, the fire communicated to the powder-room, and it is 
impossible to describe the noise with which our vessel blew up. A 
thick cloud intercepted the light of the sun; amid this horrid darkness 
we could perceive nothing but large pieces of floating wood projecting 
into the air, and whose fall threatened to dash to pieces, numbers of 
unhappy wretches still struggling with the agonies of death. We, our¬ 
selves, were not quite out of danger; it was not impossible but that one 
of the flaming fragments might reach us, and precipitate our frail vessel 
to the bottom. The Almighty, however, preserved us from that mis¬ 
fortune; but what a spectacle now presented itself! The vessel had 
disappeared; its fragments covered the sea to a great distance, and 
floated in all directions with our unfortunate companions, whose despair 
and whose lives had been terminated together by their fall. We saw 
some completely suffocated, others mangled, half-burned, and still pre¬ 
serving sufficient life to be sensible of the accumulated horrors of their 
fate. 

Through the mercy of heaven I retained my fortitude, and proposed 
to make toward the fragments of the wreck, to seek provisions and to 
pick up any other articles we might want. We were totally unprovided, 
and were in danger of perishing with famine; a death more tedious 
and more painful than that of our companions. We found several 


INCIDENTS OF OCEAN LIFE. 


575 

barrels, in which we hoped to find a resource against this pressing 
necessity, but discovered, to our mortification, that it was part of the 
powder which had been thrown overboard during the conflagration. 
Night approached, but we providentially found a cask of brandy, about 
fifteen pounds of salt pork, a piece of scarlet cloth, twenty yards of 
linen, a dozen of pipe-staves, and a few ropes. It grew dark, and we 
could not wait till daylight, in our present situation, without exposing 
ourselves a hundred times to destruction among the fragments of the 
wreck, from which we had not yet been able to disengage ourselves. 
We therefore rowed away from them as speedily as possible, in order to 
attend to the equipment of our new vessel. Every one fell to work with 
the utmost assiduity; we employed everything, and took off the inner 
sheathing of our boat, for the sake of the planks and nails; we drew ' 
from the linen what thread we wanted; fortunately one of the sailors 
had two needles; our scarlet cloth served us for a sail, an oar for a 
mast, and a plank for a rudder. Notwithstanding the darkness, our 
equipment was in a short time as complete as circumstances would 
permit. The only difficulty that remained, was how to direct our course; 
we had neither charts nor instruments, and were nearly two hundred 
leagues from land. We resigned ourselves to the Almighty, whose 
assistance we implored in fervent prayers. 

At length we raised our sail, and a favorable wind removed us for¬ 
ever from the floating corpses of our unfortunate companions. In this 
manner we proceeded eight days and eight nights without perceiving 
land, exposed, stark naked, to the burning rays of the sun by day, and 
to intense cold by night. The sixth day a shower of rain inspired us 
with the hope of some relief from the thirst by which we were tor¬ 
mented; we endeavored to catch the little water that fell in our mouths 
and hands. We sucked our sail, but having been before soaked in sea¬ 
water, it communicated the bitter taste of the latter to the rain which it 
received. If, however, the rain had been more violent, it might have 
abated the wind that impelled us, and a calm would have been attended 
with inevitable destruction. 

That we might steer our course with greater certainty, we consulted 
every day the rising and setting of the sun and moon; and the stars 
showed us what wind we ought to take. A very small piece of salt pork 
furnished us one meal in the twenty-four hours; and from this even, 
we were obliged to desist on the fourth day, on account of the irritation 
of blood which it occasioned. Our only beverage was a glass of brandy 
from time to time; but that liquor burned our stomachs, without allaying 
our thirst. We saw abundance of flying fish, but the impossibility of 
catching them rendered our misery still more acute; we were, therefore, 
obliged to be contented with our provisions. The uncertainty with 
respect to our fate, the want of food, and the agitation of the sea, com¬ 
bined to deprive us of rest, and almost plunged us into despair. Nature 
seemed to have abandoned her functions; a feeble ray of hope alone 
cheered our minds and prevented us from envying the fate of our 
deceased companions. I passed the eighth night at the helm; I remained 
at my post more than ten hours, frequently desiring to be relieved, till at 
length I sunk down with fatigue. My miserable comrades were equally 
exhausted, and despair began to take possession of our souls. At last, 
when just perishing with fatigue, misery, hunger, and thirst, we dis¬ 
covered land by the first rays of the sun, on Wednesday, the 3d of 
August, 1752. Only those who have experienced similar misfortunes, 


INCIDENTS OF OCEAN LIFE. 


576 

can form an adequate conception of the change which this discovery 
produced in our minds. Our strength returned, and we took precautions 
not to be carried away by the currents. At two p. m., we reached the 
coast of Brazil, and entered the bay of Tresson, in latitude 6°. 

Our first care, upon setting foot on shore, was to thank the Almighty 
for his favors; we threw ourselves upon the ground, and in the trans¬ 
ports of our joy rolled ourselves in the sand. Our appearance was 
truly frightful, our figures preserved nothing human that did not most for¬ 
cibly announce our misfortunes. Some were perfectly naked, others 
had nothing but shirts that were rotten and torn to rags, and I had 
fastened round my waist a piece of scarlet cloth, in order to appear at 
the head of my companions. We had not yet, however, arrived at the 
end of our hardships; although rescued from the greatest of our dangers, 
that of an uncertain navigation, we were still tormented by hunger and 
thirst, and in cruel suspense whether we should find this coast inhabited 
by men susceptible of sentiments of compassion. We were deliberating 
which way we should direct our course, when about fifty Portuguese, 
most of whom were armed, advanced toward us, and inquired the reason 
of our landing. The recital of our misfortunes was a sufficient answer, 
at once announced our wants, and strongly claimed the sacred rights of 
hospitality. Their treasures were not the object of our desire, the 
necessities of life were all that we wanted. Touched by our misfortunes, 
they blessed the power that had preserved us, and hastened to conduct 
us to their habitations. Upon the way, we came to a river, into which 
all my companions ran to throw themselves, in order to allay their thirst; 
they rolled in the water with extreme delight, and bathing was in the 
sequel, one of the remedies of which we made the most frequent use, 
and which, at the same time, contributed most to the restoration of our 
health. 

The principal person of the place came and conducted us to his house, 
about half a league distant from the place of our landing. Our chari¬ 
table host gave us linen shirts and trowsers, and boiled some fish, the 
water of which, served us for broth, and seemed delicious. After this 
frugal repast, though sleep was equally necessary, yet we prepared to 
render solemn thanks to the Almighty. Hearing that at the distance of 
half a league, there was a church dedicated to St. Michael, we repaired 
thither, singing praises to the Lord, where we presented the homage of 
our gratitude to Him to whom we were so evidently indebted for our 
preservation. The badness of the road had fatigued us so much, that 
we were obliged to rest in the village; our misfortunes, together with 
such an edifying spectacle, drew all the inhabitants around us, and every 
one hastened to fetch us refreshments. After resting a short time, we 
returned to our kind host, who at night furnished us with another repast 
of fried fish. As we wanted more invigorating food, we purchased an 
ox, which we had in exchange for twenty-five quarts of brandy. We 
had to go to Paraiba, a journey of fifteen leagues, barefooted, and with¬ 
out any hope of meeting with good provisions on the way; we therefore 
took the precaution of smoke-drying our meat, and adding to it a pro¬ 
vision of flour. After resting three days, we departed under an escort 
of three soldiers. We proceeded seven leagues the first day, and 
passed the night at the house of a man who received us kindly. The 
next evening a sergeant, accompanied by twenty-nine soldiers, came to 
meet us for the purpose of conducting and presenting us to the com¬ 
mander of the fortress; that worthy officer received us graciously, gave 


INCIDENTS OF OCEAN LIFE. 


577 

us an entertainment, and a boat to go to Paraiba. It was midnight when 
we arrived at that town; a Portuguese captain was waiting to present us 
to the governor, who gave us a gracious reception, and furnished us 
with all the comforts of life. We there reposed for three days; but 
being desirous of reaching Pernambuco, to take advantage of a Portu¬ 
guese fleet that was expected to sail every day, in order to return to 
Europe, the governor ordered a corporal to conduct us thither. My feet 
were so lacerated that I could scarcely stand, and a horse was therefore 
provided for ihe. 

At length, after a journey of four days, we entered the town of Per¬ 
nambuco. Mv first business was to go with my people to present myself 
to the general, Joseph de Correa, who condescended to give us an 
audience; after which, Don Francisco Miguel, a captain of a king’s ship, 
took us in his boat to procure us the advantage of saluting the admiral 
of the fleet, Don Juan d’Acosta de Porito. During the fifty days that 
we remained at Pernambuco, that gentleman never ceased to load me 
with new favors and civilities. His generosity extended to all my com¬ 
panions in misfortune, to some of whom, he even gave appointments in 
the vessels of his fleet. 

On the 5th of October we set sail, and arrived without any accident 
at Lisbon, on the 17th of December. On the 2d of January, our consul, 
M. du Vernay, procured me a passage in a vessel bound to Morlaix. 
The master and myself went on board together, the rest of my compan¬ 
ions being distributed among the ships. I arrived at Morlaix on the 2d 
of February. My fatigues obliged me to take a few days’ rest in that 
place, from whence I repaired, on the 10th, to L’Orient, overwhelmed 
with poverty, having lost all that I possessed in the world, after a service 
of twenty-eight years, and with my health greatly impaired by the hard¬ 
ships I had endured. 


A SAILOR’S LIFE AND DUTIES. 

As we had now a long spell of fine weather, without any incident to 
break the monotony of our lives, I will describe the duties, regulations, 
and customs of an American merchantman, of which ours was a fair 
specimen. 

The captain, in the first place, is lord paramount. He stands no 
watch, comes and goes when he pleases, and is accountable to no one, 
and must be obeyed in everything without a question even from his 
chief officer. He has the power to turn his officers off duty, and to 
even break them and make them do duty as sailors in the forecastle. 
Where there are no passengers and no supercargo, he has no companion 
but his own dignity, and no pleasures, unless he differs from most of 
his kind, but the consciousness of possessing supreme power, and 
occasionally the exercise of it. 

The prime minister, the official organ, and the active and superintend¬ 
ing officer, is the chief mate. He is first lieutenant, boatswain, sailing- 
master, and quartermaster. The captain tells him what he wishes to 
have done, and leaves to him the care of overseeing, of allotting the 
work, and also the responsibility of its being well done. The mate (as 
he is always called, par excellence ,) also keeps the log-book, for which 
37 



INCIDENTS OF OCEAN LIFE. 


578 

he is responsible to the owners and insurers, and has the charge of the 
stowage, safe keeping, and delivery of the cargo. He is also, ex-officio, 
the wit of the crew; for the captain does not condescend to joke with 
the men, and the second mate no one cares for, so that when “ the mate ” 
thinks to entertain “ the people ” with a coarse joke, or a little practical 
wit, every one feels bound to laugh. The second mate’s, is proverbially 
a dog’s berth. He is neither officer nor man. The men do not respect 
him as an officer, and he is obliged to go aloft to furl and reef the top¬ 
sails, and to put his hands into the slush and tar with the rest. The 
crew call him the “ sailor waiter,” as he has to furnish them with spun- 
yarn, marline, and all other stuffs that they need in their work, and has 
charge of the boatswain’s locker, which includes serving-boards, marline- 
spikes, etc., etc. He is expected by the captain, to maintain his dignity, 
and to enforce obedience, and still is kept at a great distance from the 
mate and obliged to work with the men. He is one to whom little is 
given, and of whom much is required. His wages are usually double 
those of a common sailor, and he eats and sleeps in the cabin; but he 
is obliged to be on deck nearly all his time, and eats at the second table, 
that is, makes a meal out of what the captain and chief mate leave. 

The steward is the captain’s servant, and has charge of the pantry, 
from which every one, even the mate himself, is excluded. These 
distinctions usually find him an enemy in the mate, who does not like to 
have any one on board who is not entirely under his control; the crew 
do not consider him as one of their number, so he is left to the mercy 
of the captain. 

The cook is the patron of the crew, and those who are in his favor, 
can get their wet mittens and stockings dried, or light their pipes at the 
galley in the night watch. These two worthies, together with the car¬ 
penter and sail-maker, if there be one, stand no watch, but being 
employed all day, are allowed to “ sleep in ” at night, unless all hands 
are called. 

The crew are divided into two divisions as equally as may be, called 
the watches. Of these, the chief mate commands the larboard, and the 
second mate the starboard. They divide the time between them, being 
on and off duty, as it is called, on deck and below every other four hours. 
If, for instance, the chief mate with the larboard watch have the first 
night watch from eight to twelve, at the end of the four hours, the star¬ 
board watch is called, and the second mate takes the deck, while the 
larboard watch and the first mate go below until four in the morning, 
when they come on deck again and remain until eight, having what is 
called the morning watch. As they will have been on deck eight hours 
out of the twelve, while those who had the middle watch—from twelve 
to four—will have been up only four hours, they have what is called “ a 
forenoon watch below,” that is, from 8 a. m., until noon. In a man-of- 
war, and in some merchantmen, this alternation of watches is kept up 
throughout the twenty-four hours; but our ship, like most merchantmen, 
had u all hands” from twelve o’clock till dark, except in bad weather, 
when we had u watch and watch.” 

An explanation of the “ dog-watches” may, perhaps, be of use to one 
who has never been at sea. They are to shift the watches each night, 
so that the same watch need not be on deck at the same hour. In order 
to effect this, the watch from four to eight p. m. is divided into two half 
or dog-watches, one from four to six, and the other from six to eight. By 
this means, they divide the twenty-four hours into seven watches instead 


INCIDENTS OF OCEAN LIFE. 


579 


of six , and thus shift the hours every night. As the dog-watches come 
during twilight, after the day’s work is done, and before the night watch 
is set, they are the watches in which everybody is on deck. The captain 
is up walking on the weather side of the quarter-deck; the chief mate 
is on the lee side, and the second mate about the weather gangway. 
The steward has finished his work in the cabin, and has come up to 
smoke his pipe with the cook in the galley. The crew are sitting on 
the windlass or lying on the forecastle, smoking, singing, or telling long 
yarns. At eight o’clock, eight bells are struck, the log is hove, the 
watch set, the wheel relieved, the galley shut up, and the other watch 
goes below. 

The morning commences with the watch on deck “turning to” at 
daybreak, and washing down, scrubbing, and swabbing the decks. 
This, together with filling the scuttle-butt with fresh water, and coiling 
up rigging, usually occupies the time until seven bells, (half past seven,) 
when all hands go to breakfast. At eight, the day’s work begins, and 
lasts until sundown, with the exception of an hour for dinner. 

Before I end my explanations, it may be well to define a day's work , 
and to correct a mistake prevalent among landsmen about a sailor’s life. 
Nothing is more common than to hear people say “Are not sailors very 
idle at sea? What can they find to do?” This is a very natural mistake, 
and being very frequently made, it is one which every sailor feels inter¬ 
ested in having corrected. In the first place, the discipline of the ship 
requires every man to be at work upon something when he is upon deck, 
except at night and on Sundays. Except at these times, you will never 
see a man on board a well ordered vessel, standing idle on deck, sitting 
down, or leaning over the side. It is the officers’ duty to keep every one 
at work, even if there is nothing to be done but to scrape the rust from 
the chain cables. In no state prison are the convicts more regularly 
set to work, and more closely watched. No conversation is allowed 
among the crew at their duty, and though they frequently do talk when 
aloft, or when near one another, yet they always stop when an officer is 
nigh. 

With regard to the work upon which the men are put; it is a matter 
which probably would not be understood by one who has not been at 
sea. When 1 first left port, I found that we were regularly employed; 
for a week or two. I supposed that we were getting the vessel into sea 
trim, and that it would soon be over and we should have nothing to do* 
but to sail the ship, but I found that it continued so for two years, and 
at the end of the two years, there was as much to be done as ever. As 
has often been said, a ship is like a lady’s watch, always out of repair. 
When first leaving port, studding-sail gear is to be rove, all the running 
rigging to be examined, that which is unfit for use to be got down, and 
new rigging rove in its place; then the standing rigging is to be over¬ 
hauled, replaced, and repaired in a thousand different ways, and where- 
ever any of the numberless ropes are wearing or chafing upon it, there 
“ chafing gear,” as it is called, is to be put on. This chafing gear 
consists of worming, parceling, roundings, battons, and ; service of all 
kinds—both rope-yarns, spun-yarn, marline, and seizing stuffs. Taking 
off, putting on and mending the chafing gear alone, upon a vessel would 
find constant employment for two or three men during working hours,, 
for a whole voyage. 

The next point to be considered, is, that all the “ small stuffs” which 
are used on board a ship—such as spun-yarn, marline, seizing stuff, etc.,. 


INCIDENTS OF OCEAN LIFE. 


530 

etc.—arc made on board. The owners of a vessel buy up incredible 
quantities of “old junk,” which the sailors untwist, and after drawing 
out the yarns, knot them together, and roll them up in balls. These 
“rope yarns” are constantly used for various purposes, but the greater 
part is manufactured into spun-yarn. For this purpose every vessel is 
furnished with a “spun-yarn winch,” which is very simple, consisting 
of a wheel and spindle. This may he heard constantly going on deck 
in pleasant weather; and we had employment during a great part of the 
time, for three hands in drawing and knotting yarns, and making spun- 
yarn. 

Another method of employing the crew is “setting up” rigging. 
Whenever any of the standing rigging becomes slack, (which is con¬ 
stantly happening,) the seizings and coverings must be taken off, tackles 
got up, and after the rigging is bowsed, well taut, the seizings and cover¬ 
ings replaced, which is a very nice piece of work. There is also such 
a connection between different parts of a vessel, that one rope can seldom 
be touched without altering another. You cannot stay a mast aft by the 
back-stays without slacking up the head-stays, etc., etc. If we add to 
all this the tarring, greasing, oiling, varnishing, painting, scraping and 
scrubbing, which is required in the course of a long voyage, and also 
remember that this is to be done in addition to watching at night, steer¬ 
ing, reefing, furling, bracing, making and setting sail, and pulling, haul¬ 
ing and climbing in every direction, one will hardly ask, “ What can a 
sailor find to do at sea?” 

If after all this labor, after exposing their lives and limbs in storms, 
wet and cold, the merchants and captains think they have not earned 
their twelve dollars a month—out of which they clothe themselves— 
and their salt beef and hard bread, they keep them picking oakum —ad 
infinitum. This is the moral resource upon a rainy day, for then it will 
not do to work upon rigging; and when it is pouring down in floods, 
instead of letting the sailors stand about in sheltered places and talk, 
and keep themselves comfortable, they are separated to different parts 
of the ship, and kept at work picking oakum. I have seen oakum stuff 
placed about in different parts of the ship, so that the sailors might not 
be idle in the snatches between the frequent squalls upon crossing the 
equator. Some officers have been so driven to find work for the crew 
in a ship ready for sea, that they have set them to pounding the anchors— 
often done—and scraping the chain-cable. 

This kind of work, of course, is not kept up off Cape Horn, Cape of 
Good Hope, and in extreme north and south latitudes; but I have seen 
the decks washed down and scrubbed when the water would have frozen 
if it had been fresh ; and all hands kept at work upon the rigging when we 
had on our pea-jackets, and our hands were so numb that we could hardly 
hold our marline-spikes. Before leaving this description, I would state, 
in order to show landsmen how little they know of the nature of a ship, 
that a ship-carpenter is kept in constant employ, during good weather, 
on board vessels which are in what is called perfect sea-order. 

On Sabbaths, when the weather is fine, the decks are washed down, 
the rigging coiled up, and everything put in order; and throughout the 
day only one watch is kept on deck at a time. The men are all dressed 
in their best white duck trowsers, and red or checked shirts, and have 
nothing to do, but to make the necessary changes in the sails. They 
employ themselves in reading, talking, smoking, and mending their 
clothes. If the weather is pleasant, they bring their work and their 


INCIDENTS OF OCEAN LIFE. 


581 

books upon deck, and sit down upon the forecastle and windlass. 
This is the only day on which these privileges are allowed them. When 
Monday comes, they put on their tarry trowsers again, and prepare for 
six days of labor. 

To enhance the value of the Sabbath to the crew, they are allowed 
on that day a pudding, or, as it is called, a “ duff.” This is nothing 
more than flour boiled with water and eaten with molasses. It is very 
dark and clammy, yet it is looked upon as a luxury, and really forms an 
agreeable variety with salt beef and pork. Many a rascally captain has 
made friends of his crew by allowing them duff twice a week on the 
passage home. 


SCENES ON A MAN-OF-WAR IN A HURRICANE. 

Among the most vivid descriptions of a hurricane at sea is that given 
by Lieutenant Archer, in a letter to his mother. He was on board of 
his majesty’s ship Phoenix in a hurricane in the West Indies, in the year 
1780. This ship was lost, together with twelve others, comprising the 
British fleet on that station. The narrative is so powerful that the reader 
seems almost transported to the decks of the Phoenix, and to be an eye 
witness of the awful events which are transpiring on the occasion. 

“ It happened to be my middle watch, and about three o’clock, when 
the man upon the forecastle bawls out: 

‘Breakers ahead, and land upon the lee bow!’ 

I looked out, and it was so, sure enough. 

‘Ready about! Put the helm down! Helm a lee!’ 

Sir Hyde Parker, hearing me put the ship about, jumped upon deck. 

‘ Archer, what’s the matter ? you are putting the ship about without 
my orders!’ 

‘ Sir, ’tis time to go about; the ship is almost ashore; there is the land.’ 

‘Good God! so it is. Will the ship stay?’ 

‘ Yes, sir; I believe she will, if we don’t make any confusion; She is 
all aback—forward now?’ 

‘ Well,’ says he, ‘work the ship; I will not speak a single word.’ 

The ship stayed very well. 

‘ Then heave the lead! see what water we have.’ 

‘ Three fathom.’ 

‘ Keep the ship away, W. N. W.’ 

‘ By the mark, three.’ 

‘ This won’t do, Archer.’ 

‘No, sir; we had better haul more to the northward; we came S. S. 
E., and had better steer N. N W.’ 

‘ Steady, and a quarter three.’ 

‘ This may do, as we deepen a little.’ 

‘ By the deep, four.’ 

‘Very well, my lad; heave quick.’ 

‘Five fathom.’ 

‘That’s a fine fellow; another cast nimbly.’ 

‘ Quarter less eight.’ 

‘ That will do. Come, we shall get clear by and by.’ 

‘ Mark under water, five.’ 



582 


INCIDENTS OF OCEAN LIFE. 


1 What’s that?’ 

‘ Only five fathom, sir.’ 

4 Turn all hands up; bring the ship to an anchor, boy! Are the anchors 
clear?’ 

4 In a moment, sir—all clear.’ 

4 What water have you in the chains now?’ 

4 Eight, half, nine.’ 

4 Keep fast the anchors until I call you.’ 

4 Ay, ay, sir; all fast.’ 

4 1 have no ground with this line.’ 

4 How many fathoms have you out? pass along the deep-sea line!’ 

4 Ay, ay, sir.’ 

‘Heave away—watch! watch! bear away! veer away.’ 

4 No ground, sir, with a hundred fathom.’ 

‘That’s clever! Come, Madam Phoenix, there is another squeak in 
you yet. All down but the watch; secure the anchors again; heave the 
maintopsail to the mast; luff, and bring her to the wind!’ 

“I told you, Madam, you should have a little sea jargon; if you can 
understand half of what is already said, I wonder at it, though it is 
nothing to what is to come yet, when the old hurricane begins. As soon 
as the ship was a little to rights, and all quiet again, Sir Hyde came to 
me in the most friendly manner, the tears almost starting from his eyes: 

4 Archer, we ought all to be much obliged to you for the safety of the 
ship, and, perhaps, of ourselves. I am particularly so; nothing but that 
instantaneous presence of mind and calmness saved her; another ship’s 
length, and we should have been fast on shore; had you been the least 
diffident, or made the least confusion, so as to make the ship haulk in 
her stays, she must have been inevitably lost.’ 

4 Sir, you are very good, but I have done nothing that I suppose any¬ 
body else would not have done in the same situation. I did not turn all 
the hands up, knowing the watch able to work the ship; beside, had it 
spread immediately about the ship that she was almost ashore, it might 
have created a confusion that was better avoided.’ 

4 Well,’ says he, 4 ’tis well, indeed.’ 

44 At daylight we found that the current had set us between the Colla- 
dora rocks and Cape Antonio, and that we could not have got out any 
other way than we did; there was a chance; but Providence is the best 
pilot. We had sunset that day twenty leagues to the south-east of our 
reckoning by the current. 

After getting clear of this scrape, we thought ourselves fortunate, and 
made sail for Jamaica; bnt misfortune seemed to follow misfortune. 
The next night, my watch upon deck, too, we were overtaken by a 
squall, like a hurricane while it lasted; for though I saw it coming, and 
prepared for it, yet, when it took the ship, it roared and laid her down so 
that I thought she would never get up again. However, by keeping her 
away, and clueing up everything, she righted. The remainder of the 
night we had very heavy squalls, and in the morning found the mainmast 
sprung half the way through: one hundred and twenty-three leagues to 
the leeward of Jamaica, the hurricane months coming on, the head of 
the mainmast almost off, and at a short allowance; well, we must make 
the best of it. The mainmast was well finished, but we were obliged 
to be very tender of carrying the sail. 

Nothing remarkable happened for ten days afterward, when we chased 
a Yankee man-of-war for six hours, but could not get near enough to 


INCIDENTS OF OCEAN LIFE. 


583 

her, before it was dark, to keep sight of her; so that we lost her because 
unable to carry any sail on the mainmast. In about twelve days more 
made the island of Jamaica, having weathered all the squalls, and put 
into Montego Bay for water: so that we had a strong party for kicking 
up a dust on shore, having found three men-of-war lying there. Dancing, 
etc., etc., till two o’clock every morning; little thinking what was to 
happen in four days’ time: for out of the four men-of-war that were 
there, not one was in being at the end of that time, and not a soul alive 
but those of our crew. Many of the houses where we had been so 
merry, were so completely destroyed that scarcely a vestige remained to 
mark where they stood. Thy works are wonderful, O God! praised be 
thy holy name! 

September the 30th, weighed; bound for Port Royal, round the east¬ 
ward of the island; the Barbadoes and Victor had sailed the day before, 
and the Scarborough was to sail the next. Moderate weather until- 
October the 2d. Spoke to the Barbadoes, oft' Port Antonio, in the 
evening. At eleven at night it began to snuffle, with a monstrous heavy 
bill from the eastward. Close reefed the topsails. 

Sir Hyde sent for me: ‘ What sort of weather have we, Archer?’ 

‘ It blows a little, and has a very ugly look ; if in any other quarter 
but this, I should say we were going to have a gale of wind.’ 

‘ Ay, it looks so very often here when there is no wind at all; however, 
don’t hoist the topsails till it clears a little, there is no trusting any 
country.’ 

‘At twelve I was relieved; the weather had the same rough look, 
however, they made sail upon her, but had a very dirty night. At eight 
in the morning I came up again, found it blowing hard from the E. N. E. 
with close reefed topsails upon the ship, and heavy squalls at times. 

‘ Sir Hyde came upon deck: ‘ Well, Archer, what do you think of it?’ 

‘ Oh, sir, ’tis only a touch of the times; we shall have an observation 
at twelve o’clock ; the clouds are beginning to break ; it will clear up at 
noon, or else blow very hard afterward.’ 

‘I wish it would clear up, but I doubt it much. I was once in a 
hurricane in the East Indies, and the beginning of it had much the 
same appearance as this. So take in the topsails, we have plenty of 
sea-room.’ 

At twelve, the gale still increasing, wore ship, to keep as near mid 
channel between Jamaica and Cuba as possible ; at one the gale increas¬ 
ing still; at two harder! Reefed the courses, and furled them ; brought 
to under a foul mizzen-staysail. head to the northward. In the evening 
no sign of the weather taking off, but^very appearance of the storm 
increasing, prepared for a proper gale of wind; secured all the sails 
with spare gaskets; good rolling tackles upon the yards ; squared the 
booms; saw the boats all made fast; new lashed the guns; double 
breeched the lower deckers ; saw that the carpenters had the tarpaulins 
and batins all ready for hatchways; got the topgallant-mast down upon the 
deck; jib-boom and sprit-sail-yard fore and aft; in fact, everything we 
could think of to make a snug ship. 

The poor devils of birds now began to find the uproar in the ele¬ 
ments, for numbers, both of sea and land kinds, came on board of us. 
I took notice of some, which happening to be to leeward, turned to wind¬ 
ward like ship, tack and tack: for they could not fly against it. When 
they came over the ship they dashed themselves down upon the deck, 
without attempting to stir till picked up; and when let go again, they 


INCIDENTS OF OCEAN LIFE. 


584 

would not leave the ship, but endeavored to hide themselves from the 
wind. 

At eight o’clock a hurricane; the sea roaring, but the wind still steady 
to a point; did not ship a spoonful of water. However, got the hatch¬ 
ways all secured, expecting what would be the consequences should the 
wind shift; placed the carpenters by the mainmast, with broad-axes, 
knowing from experience, that at the moment you may want to cut it 
away to save the ship, an ax may not be found. Went to supper: 
bread, cheese, and porter. The purser frightened out of his wits about 
his bread-bags; the two marine officers as white as sheets, not under¬ 
standing the ship’s working so much, and the noise of the lower deck 
guns; which, by this time, made a pretty screeching to the people not 
used to it; it seemed as if the whole ship’s side was going at each roll. 
Wooden, our carpenter, was all this time smoking his pipe and laughing 
at the doctor; the second lieutenant upon deck, and the third in his 
hammock. 

At ten o’clock I thought to get a little sleep: came to look into my 
cot; it was full of water; for every seam, by the straining of the ship, 
had begun to leak. Stretched myself, therefore, upon deck between 
two chests, and left orders to be called, should the least thing happen. 

At twelve a midshipman came to me: i Mr. Archer, we are just going 
to wear ship, sir!’ 

4 Oh, very well, I'll be up directly; what sort of weather have you 
got?’ 

‘ It blows a hurricane.’ 

Went upon deck, found Sir Hyde there. 4 It blows hard, Archer.’ 

4 It does, indeed, sir.’ 

‘I don’t know that I ever remember its blowing so hard before; but 
the ship makes a very good weather of it upon this tack, as she bows 
the sea; but we must wear her, as the wind has shifted to the S. E. and 
we are drawing right upon Cuba ; so do you go forward, and have 
some hands stand by ; loose the lee yard-arm of the foresail, and when 
she is right before the wind, whip the clew-garnet close up and roll up 
the sail.’ 

4 Sir, there is no canvas that can stand against this a moment; if we 
attempt to loose him he will fly into ribbons in an instant, and we may 
lose three or four of our people ; she’ll wear by manning the fore 
shrouds.’ 

4 Oh, I do n’t think she will.’ 

£ I’ll answer for it, sir; I have seen it tried several times on the coast 
of America with success.’ 

4 Well, try it; if she does not wear, we can only loose the foresail 
afterward.’ 

This was a great condescension from such a man as Sir Hyde. How¬ 
ever, by sending about two hundred people into the fore-rigging, after a 
hard struggle she wore; found she did not make so good weather on this 
tack as on the other; for, as the sea began to run across, she had not 
time to rise from one sea before another dashed against her. Began to 
think we should lose our masts, as the ship lay very much along by the 
pressure of the wind constantly upon the yards and masts alone ; for the 
poor mizzen-staysail had gone in shreds long before, and the sails began 
to fly from the yards through the gaskets into coach whips. My God! 
to think that the wind could have such force! Sir Hyde now sent me 
to see what was the matter between decks, as there was a good deal 


INCIDENTS OF OCEAN LIFE. 585 

of noise. As soon as I was below, one of the marine officers 
calls out: 

4 Good God! Mr. Archer, we are sinking ; the water is up to the bottom 
of my cot.’ 

‘Pooh, pooh! as long as it is not over your mouth you are well off; 
what the d-1 do you make so much noise for?’ 

I found there was some water between decks, but nothing to be 
alarmed at; we scuttled the deck and run it into the well; found she 
made a good deal of water through the sides and decks ; turned the 
watch below to the pumps, though only two feet of water in the well; 
but expected to be kept constantly at work now, as the ship labored 
much, with scarcely a part of her above water but the quarter-deck, and 
that but seldom. 

4 Come, pump away, my boys. Carpenters, get the weather chain- 
puinp rigged.’ 

4 All ready, sir.’ 

4 Then man it, and keep both pumps going.’ 

At two o’clock the chain-pump being choked, we set the carpenters 
at work to clear it; the two head-pumps at work upon deck ; the water 
gained upon us while our chain-pumps were idle; in a quarter of an 
hour they were at work again, and we began to gain upon it. While I 
was standing at the pumps cheering the people, the carpenter’s mate 
came running to me with a face as long as my arm. 

4 Oh, sir! the ship has sprung a leak in the gunner’s room.’ 

4 Go, then, and tell the carpenter to come to me, but do not speak a 
word to any one else. Mr. Goodinoh, I am told there is a leak in the 
gunner’s room; go and see what is the matter, but do not alarm any 
body, and come and make your report privately to me.’ 

In a short time he returned; 4 Sir, there is nothing there; it is only 
the water washing up between the timbers that this booby has taken for 
a leak.’ 

4 Oh, very well; go upon deck and see if you can keep any of the water 
from washing down below.’ 

‘Sir, I have had four people constantly keeping the hatchways 
secure, but there is such a weight of water upon the deck that nobody 
can stand when the ship rolls.’ 

The gunner soon afterward came to me, saying, ‘Mr. Archer, I 
should be glad to have you step this way into the magazine for a moment.’ 

I thought something was the matter, and ran directly. 4 Well, what is 
the matter here?’ 

He answered. 4 The ground tier of the powder is spoiled, and I want 
to show you that it is not out of carelessness in me in stowing it, for no 
powder in the world could be better stowed. Now, sir, what am I to do? 
If you do not speak to Sir Hyde, he will be angry with me.’ 

1 could not forbear smiling to see how easy he took the danger of the 
ship, and said to him, 4 Let us shake off this gale of wind first, and talk 
of the damaged powder afterward.’ At four we had gained upon the 
ship a little, and I went upon deck, it being my watch. The second 
lieutenant relieved me at the pumps. Who can attempt to describe the 
appearance of things upon deck ? If I was to write for ever, I could 
not give you an idea of it — a total darkness all above ; the sea on fire, 
running £s if it were in the Alps, or Peaks of Teneriffe; (mountains are 
too common an idea;) the wind roaring louder than thunder, (absolutely 
no flight of imagination,) the whole made more terrible, if possible, by 


586 


INCIDENTS OF OCEAN LIFE. 


a very uncommon kind of blue lightning; the poor ship very much 
pressed, yet doing what she could, shaking her sides and groaning at 
every stroke. Sir Hyde upon deck lashed to windward! I soon lashed 
myself along side of him, and told him the situation of things below, 
saying the ship did not make more water than might be expected in such 
weather, and that I was only afraid of a gun breaking loose. 

‘ I am not in the least afraid of that; I have commanded her six years, 
and have had many a gale of wind in her; so that her iron work, which 
always gives way first, is pretty well tried. Hold fast! that was an ugly 
sea ; we must lower the yards, I believe, Archer ; the ship is much 
pressed.’ 

‘If we attempt it, sir, we shall lose them, for a man can do nothing; 
beside, their being down would ease the ship very little; the mainmast 
is a sprung mast; I wish it was overboard without carrying anything else 
along with it; but that can soon be done, the gale cannot last forever : 
‘twill soon be daylight now.’ 

Found by the master’s watch that it was five o’clock, though but a 
little after four by ours; I was glad it was so near daylight, and looked 
for it with much anxiety. Cuba, thou art much in our way! Another 
ugly sea: sent a midshipman to bring news from the pumps; the ship 
was gaining on them very much, for they had broken one of their chains, 
but it was almost mended again. News from the pump again. 

‘ She still gains! a heavy lee !’ 

Back-water from leeward, half way up the quarter-deck; filled one of 
the cutters upon the booms, and tore her all to pieces ; the ship lying 
almost on her beam ends, and not attempting to right again. Word from 
below that the ship still gained on them, as they could not stand to the 
pumps, she lay so much along. 

I said to Sir Hyde: ‘This is no time, sir, to think of saving the 
masts, shall we cut the mainmast away ?’ 

‘ Ay ! as fast as you can.’ 

I accordingly went into the weather-chains with a pole-ax, to cut 
away the lanyards ; the boatswain went to leeward, and the carpenters 
stood by the masts. We were all ready, when a very violent sea broke 
right on board of us, carried everything upon deck away, filled the ship 
with water, the main and mizzen-masts went, the ship righted, but was in 
the last struggle of sinking under us. As soon as we could shake our 
heads above water, Sir Hyde exclaimed: 

‘ We are-gone, at last, Archer! foundered at sea!’ 

‘ Yes, sir, farewell, and the Lord have mercy upon us!’ 

I then turned about to look at the ship, and thought she was struggling 
to get rid of some of the water; but all was in vain, she was almost full 
below. 

‘ Almighty God ! I thank thee, that now I am leaving this world, which 
I have always considered as only a passage to a better, I die with a full 
hope of thy mercies through the merits of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our 
Saviour! ’ 

I then felt sorry that I could swim, as by that means I might be a 
quarter of an hour longer dying than a man who could not, and it is 
impossible to divest ourselves of a wish to preserve life. At the end of 
these reflections I thought I heard the ship thump and grinding under 
our feet; it was so. 

‘ Sir, the ship is ashore!’ 

‘ What do you say?’ 


INCIDENTS OF OCEAN LIFE. 


587 


‘The ship is ashore, and we may save ourselves yet!’ 

By this time the quarter-deck was full of men who had come up from 
below; and the “ Lord have mercy upon us,” flying about from all 
quarters. 

The ship now made everybody sensible that she was ashore, for 
every stroke threatened a total dissolution of her whole frame ; we found 
she was stern ashore, and the bow broke the sea a good deal, though it was 
washing clean over at every stroke, Sir Hyde cried out: 

‘ Keep to the quarter-deck, my lads ; when she goes to pieces it is 
your best chance!’ 

Providentially got the foremast cut away, that she might not pay round 
broadside. Lost five in cutting away the foremast, by the breaking of a 
sea on board just as the mast went. That was nothing; every one 
expected it would be his own fate next; looked for daybreak with the 
greatest impatience. At last it came; but what a scene did it show us! 
The ship upon a bed of rocks, mountains of them on one side, and 
Cordilleras of water on the other; our poor ship grinding and crying out 
at every stroke between them; going away by piece-meal. However, to 
show the unaccountable workings of Providence, that which often appears 
to be the greatest evil, proves to be the greatest good! That unmerciful 
sea lifted and beat us up so high among the rocks, that at last the ship 
scarcely moved. She was very strong, and did not go to pieces at the 
first thumping, though her decks tumbled in. We found afterward that 
she had beat over a ledge of rocks almost a quarter of a mile in extent 
beyond us, where, if she had struck, every soul of us must have perished. 

I now began to think of getting on shore, so I stripped off my coat and 
shoes for a swim, and looked for a line, to carry the end with me. Luckily 
I could not find one, which gave me time for recollection: 4 This won’t 
do for me, to be the first man out of the ship, and first lieutenant; we 
may get to England again, and people may think I paid a great deal of 
attention to myself, and did not care for anybody else. No, that won’t 
do; instead of being the first, I’ll see every man, sick and well, out of 
her before me.’ 

I now thought there was no probability of the ship’s soon going to 
pieces, therefore had not a thought of instant death: took a look round 
with a kind of philosophic eye, to see how the same situation affected 
my companions, and was surprised to find the most swaggering, swearing 
bullies in fine weather, now the most pitiful wretches on earth, when 
death appeared before them. However, two got safe; by which means, 
with a line we got a hawser on shore, and made fast to the rocks, upon 
which many ventured and arrived safe. There were some sick and 
wounded on board, who could not avail themselves of this method ; we 
therefore got a spare topsail yard from the chains and placed one end 
ashore and the other on the cabin window, so that most of the sick got 
ashore this way. 

As I had determined, so I was the last man out of the ship; this was 
about ten o’clock. The gale now began to break. Sir Hyde came to 
me. and taking me by the hand, was so affected that he was scarcely 
able to speak. 

‘Archer, I am happy beyond expression to see you on shore, but 
look at our poor Phoenix!’ 

I turned about, but could not say a single word, being too full; my 
mind had been too intensely occupied before ; but everything now rushed 
upon me at once, so that I could not contain myself, and I indulged for 


INCIDENTS OF OCEAN LIFE. 


538 

a full quarter of an hour. By twelve it was pretty moderate; got some 
nails on shore and made tents; we found great quantities of fish driven 
up by the sea into holes of the rocks: knocked up a fire and had a most 
comfortable dinner. In the afternoon we made a stage from the cabin 
windows to the rocks, and got out some provisions and water, lest the 
ship should go to pieces, in which case we must all have perished of 
hunger and thirst; for we were upon a desolate part of the coast, and 
under a rocky mountain that could not supply us with a single drop of 
water. 

Slept comfortably this night; and the next day the idea of death van¬ 
ishing by degrees, the prospect of being prisoners, during the war, at 
Havana, and walking three hundred miles to it through the woods, 
was rather unpleasant. However, to save life for the present, we 
employed this day in getting more provisions and water on shore, which 
was not an easy matter, on account of decks, guns, and rubbish, and ten 
feet of water that lay over them. In the evening I proposed to Sir Hyde 
to repair the remains of the only boat left, and to venture in her to 
Jamaica myself; and in case I arrived safe to bring vessels to take them 
all off; a proposal worthy of consideration. It was next day agreed to ; 
therefore we got the cutter on shore, and set the carpenters to work on her ; 
in two days she was ready, and at four o’clock in the afternoon I embarked 
with four volunteers and a fortnight's provision; hoisted English colors 
as we put off from shore, and received three cheers from the lads left 
behind, and set sail with a light heart; having not the least doubt that, 
with God’s assistance, we should come and bring them all off. Had a 
very squally night, and a very leaky boat, so as to keep two buckets 
constantly bailing. Steered her myself the whole night by the stars, 
and in the morning saw the coast of Jamaica, distant twelve leagues. 
At eight in the evening arrived at Montego Bay. 

1 must now begin to leave off, particularly as I have but half an hour 
to conclude; else my pretty little short letter will lose its passage, which 
I should not like, after being ten days, at different times, writing it, 
beating up with the convoy to the northward, which is a reason that this 
epistle will never read well; for I never sat down with a proper disposi¬ 
tion to go on with it; but as I knew something of the kind would please 
you, I was resolved 10 finish it; yet it will not bear an overhaul; so do 
not expose your son’s nonsense. 

But to proceed—I instantly sent off an express to the Admiral, another 
to the Porcupine man-of-war, and went myself to Martha Bray to get 
vessels ; for all their vessels here, as well as many of their houses, were 
gone to Moco. Got three small vessels, and set out back again to 
Cuba, where I arrived the fourth day after leaving my companions. I 
thought the ship’s crew would have devoured me on my landing; they 
presently whisked me up on their shoulders and carried me to the tent 
where Sir Hyde was. 


INCIDENTS OF OCEAN LIFE. 


589 


A MAN OVERBOARD. 

Monday, November 19th, was a black day in our calendar. At seven 
o’clock in the morning, it being our watch below, we were aroused from 
a sound sleep by the cry. “ All hands ahoy! a man overboard!” 

This unwonted cry sent a thrill through the heart of every one ; and 
hurrying on deck, we found the vessel hove flat aback, with all her stud¬ 
ding-sails set; for the boy who was at the helm, left it to throw some¬ 
thing overboard, and the carpenter, who was an old sailor, knowing that 
the wind was light, put the helm down, and hove her aback. The watch 
on deck were lowering away the quarter-boat, and I got on deck just in 
time to heave myself into her as she was leaving the side; but it was not 
until out upon the wide Pacific, in our little boat, that I knew whom we 
had lost. It was George Ballmer, a young English sailor, who was 
prized by the officers as an active and willing seaman, and by the crew 
as a lively, hearty fellow, and a good shipmate. He was going aloft to 
fit a strap round the main-top-mast-head, for ring-tail halyards, and had 
the strap and block, a coil of halyards, and a marline-spike about, his 
neck. He fell from the starboard futtock shrouds, and not knowing how 
to swim, and being heavily dressed, with all those things around his 
neck, he probably sunk immediately. We pulled astern, in the direction 
in which he fell, and though we knew that there was no hope of saving 
him, yet no one wished to speak of returning, and we rowed about 
for nearly an hour, without the hope of doing anything, but unwilling 
to acknowledge to ourselves that we must give him up. At length we 
turned the boat’s head and made toward the vessel. 

Death is at all times solemn, but never so much so as at sea. A man 
dies on shore; his body remains with his friends, and, “the mourners go 
about the streets;” but when a man falls overboard at sea and is lost, 
there is a suddenness in the event, and a difficulty in realizing it, which 
give to it an air of awful mystery. A man dies on shore — you follow 
his body to the grave, and a stone marks the spot. You are often pre¬ 
pared for the event. There is always something which helps you to 
realize it when it happens, and to recall it when it has passed. A man 
is shot down by your side in battle, and the mangled body remains an 
object , and a real evidence; but at sea, the man is near you — at your 
side — you hear his voice, and in an instant he is gone, and nothing but 
a vacancy shows his loss. Then, too, at sea — to use a homely but 
expressive phrase — you miss a man so much. A dozen men are shut 
up together in a little bark, upon the wide, wide sea, and for months and 
months see no forms and hear no voices but their own, and one is taken 
suddenly from among them, and they miss him at every turn. It is like 
losing a limb. There are no new faces, or new scenes to fill up the 
gap. There is always an empty berth in the forecastle, and one man 
wanting when the small night watch is mustered. There is one less to 
take the wheel, and one less to lay out with you on the yard. You miss 
his form, and the sound of his voice, for habit had made them almost 
necessary to you, and each of your senses feels the loss. 

All these things make such a death peculiarly solemn, and the effect 
of it remains upon the crew for some time. There is more kindness 
shown by the officers to the crew, and by the crew to ohe another. 
There is more quietness and seriousness. The oath and the loud 
laugh are gone. The officers are more watchful, and the crew go more 
carefully aloft. The lost man is seldom mentioned, or is dismissed with 


INCIDENTS OF OCEAN LIFE. 


590 

a sailor’s rude eulogy. “Well, poor George is gone! His cruise is up 
soon! He knew his work, and did his duty, and was a good shipmate.” 
Then usually follows some allusion to another world, for sailors are 
almost all believers; but their notions and opinions are unfixed and at 
loose ends. They say,—“ God wont be hard upon the poor fellow,” 
and seldom get beyond the common phrase which seems to imply that 
their sufferings and hard treatment here will excuse them hereafter,— 

“ To work hard , live hard , die hard , and go to hell after all , would 
he hard indeed /” Our cook, a simple hearted old African, who had 
been through a good deal in his day, and was seriously inclined, always 
going to church twice a day when on shore, and reading his Bible on a 
Sunday in the galley, talked to the crew about spending their Sabbaths 
badly, and told them that they might go as suddenly as George had, and 
be as little prepared. 

Yet a sailor’s life is at best but a mixture of a little good with much 
evil, and a little pleasure with much pain. The beautiful is linked with 
the revolting, the sublime with the common-place, and the solemn with 
the ludicrous. 

We had hardly returned on board with our sad report, before an 
auction was held of the* poor man’s clothes. The captain had first, 
however, called all hands aft and asked them if they were satisfied 
that everything had been done to save the man, and if they thought 
there was any use in remaining there any longer. The crew all said 
that it was in vain, for the man did not know how to swim, and was very 
heavily dressed. So we filled away and kept her off to her course. 

The laws regulating navigation make the captain answerable for the 
effects of a sailor who dies during the voyage, and it is either a law or 
universal custom, established for convenience, that the captain should 
immediately hold an auction of his things, in which they are bid off by 
the sailors, and the sums which tfiey give are deducted from their wages 
at the end of the voyage. 

In this way the trouble and risk of keeping his things through the 
voyage are avoided, and the clothes are usually sold for more than they 
would be worth on shore. Accordingly, we had no sooner got the ship 
before the wind, than his chest was brought up upon the forecastle; and 
the sale began. The jackets and trowsers in which we had seen him 
dressed but a few days before, were exposed and bid off while the life 
was hardly out of his body, and his chest was taken aft and used as a 
store-chest, so that there was nothing left that could be called his. 
Sailors have an unwillingness to wear a dead man’s clothes during the 
same voyage, and they seldom do unless they are in absolute want. 

As is usual after a death, many stories were told about George. Some 
heard him say that he repented never having learned to swim, and that 
he knew that he should meet his death by drowning. Another said that 
he never knew any good to come of a voyage made against the 
will, and the deceased man shipped and spent his advance, and was 
afterward very unwilling to go, but not being able to refund, was obliged 
to sail with us. A boy, too, who had become quite attached to him said 
that George talked to him during most of the watch on the night before, 
about his mother and family at home, and this was the first time that he 
had mentioned the subject during the voyage. 


NARRATIVE 


OF THE 

MUTINY ON THE SOMERS, 


A BRIG OF WAR IN THE AMERICAN NAVAL SERVICE, ALEXANDER SLIDELL MACKENZIE 
COMMANDER ; AND OF THE 


EXECUTION OF SPENCER, CROMWELL, AND SMALL. 


The United States brig-of-\var “ Somers ” sailed from New York 
on the twelfth of September, 1842, with dispatches for the United States 
sloop-of-war “ Vandalia,” at Liberia, on the coast of Africa. The Somers 
had on board A. S. Mackenzie, commander, with seven officers in the 
steerage, and four in the wardroom, making in all twelve; together with 
twelve petty officers—four rated as seamen; nine ordinary seamen, six 
landsmen, and seventy-four apprentices, rated as boys. 

Early in October the brig arrived at Madeira, and from thence pro¬ 
ceeded, according to orders, via Teneriffe, and Porto Prayo, to Liberia. 
But, upon arriving there, the commander learned that the Vandalia had 
sailed, on the fifth of October, for the United States. The dispatches 
with which he was entrusted, being thus rendered of no use, were left 
with the United States agent. On the eleventh of November, Captain 
Mackenzie sailed for the United States by the way of St. Thomas, where 
he thought it would be necessary to take in a supply of bread, water, and 
other refreshments. 

“On Saturday, the twenty-fifth of November,” states Captain Mackenzie, 
“ Lieutenant Gansevoort came into the cabin and informed me that he 
had learned from Mr. Wales that a conspiracy existed on board to capture 
the vessel, murder the captain, bring over as many of the crew as possible, 
murder the rest, and convert the vessel into a pirate; and that Midship¬ 
man Spencer, [a son of the Honorable John C. Spencer, United States 
Secretary of War,] was at the head of the conspiracy. This, Lieutenant 
G. said, had been told him by Mr. Wales, whose narrative was as follows:— 
On the night of the — of November, betwen six and eight o’clock in the 
evening, Wales said he was roused by Spencer, who asked him to go upon 
the booms, as he had something to say to him. He got up, and, upon 
arriving at the booms, he was asked by Spencer, ‘Do you fear death? 
do you fear a dead man? do you fear to kill a man?’ Wales, with ad¬ 
mirable coolness, induced Spencer to go on, took the oath of secrecy, 
and entered into all his plans. Spencer told him that he had about 
twenty men in his plot; that they would easily get possession of the ship, 
murder the commander and officers, and commence piracy. He gave 
Wales all the details of his plan, which were admirably suited for his 
purpose, and arranged much better, Mr. Wales said, than he could have 
done it himself. As an inducement to embark in the enterprise, Spencer 
said that a large box of wine on board contained a large amount of gold 
and other treasure. Spencer’s object was to go to the Isle of Pines, where 

(591) 




MUTINY ON THE SOMERS. 


592 

one of his associates, who had been a pirate before, had a confederate 
He said he would attack no vessels that he could not capture, and would 
destroy all that he captured; that he would select from them such females 
as were proper, use them, and then dispose of them; that he had all the 
details of the plan drawn out on paper, which was in the back of his 
cravat. He showed money to Mr. Wales, and, before separating, threat- 
ened him with instant death if he ever revealed what he had told him.” 
Such, says Captain Mackenzie, was the purport of the information which 
I received from Lieutenant Gansevoort. 

Captain M. further said, that to him the whole affair seemed so mon¬ 
strous that he at first treated it with ridicule, believing that Spencer had 
been amusing himself and Wales with some story of piracy he had learned 
from some novel or tale of murder; still he (Captain M.) could not help 
feeling that it was sporting with a serious subject, and he resolved to 
be on his guard and watch closely the movements of Spencer. During 
that day Spencer was much in the wardroom, examining a chart of the 
West Indies, and made some inquiries in regard to the Isle of Pines; 
he passed the day sullenly, and was often observed to be looking over 
a paper and writing with a pencil. He was frequently seen engaged 
in holding secret conferences with Cromwell and Small, and was known to 
have given money to different persons of the crew. He had also incited 
the steward to steal brandy, which he had given to some of the men, and 
with which he had once or twice got drunk himself. 

Spencer had the faculty of throwing his lower jaw out of joint, and 
thus playing with it a variety of musical airs; and he was repeatedly found 
to be thus amusing the crew. In his intercourse with Captain Mackenzie 
(tide Captain MSs narrative ,) he was servile to the last degree; but 
among the crew he was loudly and blasphemously vituperative against 
him, and the captain was informed of his declaration that it would give 
him pleasure to roll him overboard from the round-top. Captain Mac¬ 
kenzie discovered that he had drawn a representation of a black jlag, and 
asked members of the crew what they thought of it; and that he had 
often said the vessel could be easily taken. 

“These things,” continues Captain Mackenzie’s narrative, “induced 
me to look back over all I had heard or observed of Spencer. When he 
first reported himself to me for duty on board my vessel, I gave him my 
hand and welcomed him on board. I heard, not long after, that he had 
been involved in difficulty when on the Brazil station, and that he had 
been dismissed for drunkenness. Upon hearing this, I earnestly desired 
his removal from my vessel—principally on account of the young men I 
had with me; two of whom were connected with me by blood, two by 
alliance, and four were entrusted to my especial care. The circumstance 
of his connexion with a high and distinguished officer of the Government, 
by enhancing, if possible, his baseness, increased my desire to get rid 
of him. 

“ I desired Lieutenant Gansevoort to state to Mr. Spencer that if he 
would apply to Commodore Perry to detach him from the Somers, I would 
second his application. The application was accordingly made and I 
seconded it, earnestly urging that it might be granted in order to secure 
the comfort of the young officers. Commodore Perry, however, declined 
to detach Midshipman Spencer, but said he would consent to detach 
Midshipman Rogers. I could not, however, consent to part with Mr. 
Rogers, whom I had long known to be an accomplished seaman, a gentle¬ 
man, and an officer of the highest attainments both in and beyond his 


MUTINY ON THE SOMERS. 


593 

profession. The Somers accordingly sailed with seven in the steerage; 
they could not all sit down together at the table; two of them had no 
lockers, but slept upon the steerage deck, and subjected themselves to 
considerable inconvenience, to all which, however, they readily submitted 
without the slightest murmur or complaint, and performed every duty 
which fell to them, to the perfect satisfaction of all the officers. 

“ All these things I called to recollection, and endeavored carefully to 
review the whole conduct of Spencer. I had treated him precisely as I 
treated other midshipmen; though I had, perhaps,reproved him somewhat 
less than the others for slight deviations from the strict line of his duty. 
This arose from my conviction that there could be but little hope of 
essentially serving one who had proved to be so decidedly his own enemy. 

I observed that he was in the habit of associating but little with the other 
officers, but that he was continually intimate with the crew. He was 
often in the habit of joking with them and smiling whenever he met them, 
with a smile never known but on such occasions; and I had frequently^ 
observed in him a strange flashing of the eye.” 

Captain Mackenzie goes on to say that he observed a marked feeling 
of disrespect toward himself and other officers of the vessel, which seemed 
to be gaining ground daily. Samuel Cromwell seemed especially surly 
and disobedient. He was a large muscular man, and apparently of a 
rough and vindictive disposition. When the vessel first sailed from New 
York he was very tyrannical toward the apprentices, having no conver¬ 
sation with them, and keeping aloof from them altogether, and when called 
upon to inflict punishment, he would strike with all his might, as though 
it was pleasing to him to whip them. His manner toward them changed; 
he endeavored by every means to please them, would laugh and joke with 
ihem, allowed them to pull him about, and appeared anxious to secure 
their favor. He also grew negligent in his duty, evincing no desire, 
when orders were given him, to see them carried out, but repeating them 
lazily to the men, and without any attempt to urge their execution. His 
manner at times was disrespectful to the officers of the brig; and once, 
when Captain Mackenzie asked why some rigging had not been attended 
to, he burst into a fit of rage and heaped curses upon the commander as 

soon as his back was turned. He said he did not care a-about the 

rigging; that Captain Mackenzie wanted too much work out of the crew, 

and he wished “the commander and the brig farther in-than they 

were out!” Soon after the brig left New York, he told Wales that 
Spencer had given him $15, he mentioned no purpose, though he said 
something about its being a “ pretty good present.” Spencer also drew 
from $15 to $20 worth of tobacco and cigars during the cruise, which he 
distributed to the crew—the tobacco rather to the boys than the men. 
He gave Cromwell a bunch or two of cigars at one time, and also to Small. 

Recalling these matters, in addition to what had been revealed, Captain 
Mackenzie resolved at once to make himself sure of Spencer’s person. 
In the evening he gave orders to Mr. Perry, his clerk, to have all the 
officers come aft upon the quarter-deck. Midshipman M. C. Perry was 
ordered to take the wheel, and all the officers, except Mr. Hays, assem¬ 
bled on the starboard of the after-deck. Captain Mackenzie then addressed 
Spencer: 

“ I understand, sir, that you aspire to the command of this vessel?” 

With a deferential air he replied, “ Oh, no, sir!” 

“Did you not,” said the commander, “tell Mr. Wales that you had a 
mutinous project on foot—that you intended to kill the commander and 
38 



MUTINY ON THE SOMERS. 


594 

the officers of the Somers, and such of the crew as you could not seduce 
to your plans, and to enter upon a course of piracy!” 

“I may have told him something like it,” Spencer replied, but it was 
only in joke.” 

“You admit, then, that you told him of such a plan?” 

“ Yes, sir, but it was all in joke.” 

“ This, sir, you must know is joking upon a forbidden subject. This 
joke, sir, may cost you your life. Be pleased to remove your neck 
handkerchief.” 

Spencer did so. Captain Mackenzie opened it, but there was nothing 
in it. 

“What have you done with the paper that was in it?” 

“ The paper,” he said, “ which had been in it, contained my day’s 
work; and I destroyed it.” 

“ It is a strange place, sir, to keep your accounts!” 

Spencer acquiesced with an air of the greatest deference and 
blandness. 

Captain Mackenzie said to him: “Your design was to make yourself 
commander of this vessel. You must have been aware that you could 
compass it only by passing over my dead body and over the dead bodies 
of all the officers of the Somers. You had laid out for yourself, sir, a 
great deal to do. It is my duty to confine you.” 

Turning to Lieutenant Gansevoort, Captain Mackenzie said, “ Arrest 
Mr. Spencer, and place him in double irons.” 

Lieutenant Gansevoort stepped forward and received from Mr. Spencer 
his sword. Mr. Spencer was then ordered to sit down: he did so. 
Lieutenant Gansevoort was directed to place a watch over Spencer, and 
to give orders to put him to instant death if he was detected in speaking 
or holding any communication with any of the crew. The nature of these 
orders was told to Mr. Spencer. At the same time Lieutenant G. was 
directed to allow him every possible indulgence consistent with his safe 
keeping. The task was executed by Lieutenant Gansevoort with the 
greatest kindness and humanity. While he watched with an eagle eye 
over all his movements, and was ready at a moment’s warning to take his 
life upon a violation of those conditions on which his safety depended, 
he attended to all his wants, and covered him with his own garment from 
the squalls of rain by which they were visited. 

The officers were then remanded to quarters; the crew and batteries 
were inspected, the orders were repeated, and the retreat was beaten. 
The officers of the watch were all directed to be fully armed with cut¬ 
lasses and pistols, with rounds of ammunition, and everything was put in 
order for the night. 

On searching the locker of Spencer, a razor case was found in it, which 
he had recently drawn from the purser. On opening it, there was no 
razor within, but in its stead a piece of paper in which was rolled another. 
On the inner paper was written a string of characters, afterward found to 
be Greek letters, with which Spencer was known to be familiar. It 
fortunately happened that there was on board another individual who was 
well acquainted with the Greek—one whose knowledge of this, as of 
everything else, was devoted wholly to the service of his country. The 
Greek characters, on being converted into our own language by Mr. Henry 
Rogers, proved to contain the plan for the proposed mutiny. There was 
a list of the different members of the crew, some of whom were marked 
certain, and others doubtful; some were marked to be kept at all events, 


MUTINY ON THE SOMERS. 


595 

and others to be destroyed. Those were designated who were to do 
the work of murder in the various apartments; others were to open the 
arm-chest, and the stations of all were assigned. 

The following day was Sunday, and all were to be inspected at ten 
o’clock. Captain Mackenzie took his station aft, for the purpose of ob¬ 
serving Cromtvell and Small, as they should come along on the quarter¬ 
deck. The persons of both were faultlessly clean and neat. Cromwell 
stood up to his full stature, carrying his battle-ax firmly and steadily; 
his cheeks pale, but his eyes fixed to starboard. He wore a determined 
and dangerous air. Small presented a very different figure. His appear¬ 
ance was ghastly, his manner uneasy; he shifted his weight from side to 
side, and his battle-ax from hand to hand. His eye was never for a 
moment fixed, but always averted from Captain Mackenzie. “ I then 
attributed his conduct to fear,” says the captain, “ though I now believe 
the business upon which he had entered was repugnant to his nature, 
but that his love for money and rum was too strong for his fidelity.” 
Five bells, or ten o’clock, was the time for divine service. The roll was 
called—crew all present—unusually attentive, and their responses more 
than ordinarily full and audible. In the afternoon the sky-sails and stud¬ 
ding-sails were set. Gazely, one of the best of the apprentices, was 
sent aloft on the royal yard to make some alteration in the rigging. At 
once a sudden jerk was given to the brace by Small and another, who 
has not been discovered, and the fore-topmast, with the topsail, gallant 
stay-sail, and head gaff-topsail, came down. Captain Mackenzie says, 
“ I scarcely dared to look to see the spot where the boy should fall. The 
next moment his shadow appeared at the mast-head, and I presently dis¬ 
covered him examining with admirable coolness what was to be done. 

I did not dare to believe this carrying away of the topmast the work 
of treachery; but I knew that an occasion of this sort, such as the loss 
of the boy, which should create confusion, and interrupt the duty of the 
officers, would be sought by them, if they were bent on the prosecution 
of the enterprise. All possible measures were taken to prevent confusion. 
The rigging was immediately restored and the sails bent afresh. Every 
member of the crew was employed, and all things were made to go on 
with regularity. To my astonishment, upon the occurrence of this dis¬ 
aster all the conspirators who were named in the programme of Spencer, 
no matter in what part of the vessel they were engaged at the time, im¬ 
mediately mustered at the mainmast—whether animated by some new¬ 
born zeal to serve their country, or intending to carry out their designs, 
I cannot say. This circumstance at once confirmed my belief in the 
continued existence of the danger. The eye of Spencer traveled con¬ 
tinually to the mast-head, and he cast quick and stealthy glances about, 
as he had not done before.” 

The wreck was soon cleared away and supper piped. After supper 
the same persons mustered at the mast-head, and the sails were set. 
After quarters they dispersed. Still Captain M. did not think it safe to 
leave Cromwell at liberty during the night, which was emphatically the 
season of danger. After consulting with Lieutenant Gansevoort, he 
determined to arrest Cromwell. An officer was sent to guard the rigging. 
As soon as Cromwell came upon the Jacob’s ladder, Lieutenant Ganse¬ 
voort met him, cocked his pistol and pointed it at him, and when he got 
on deck told him that the captain wanted to see him. When he came to 
where Captain M. stood, he was commanded to sit down. The captain 
interrogated him about the conversation he had had with Spencer. He said; 


MUTINY ON THE SOMERS. 


596 

u It was not me, sir; it was Small.” (Cromwell was the tallest man on 
board and Small the shortest.) Cromwell was immediately put in irons. 
Small, being thus accused by an associate, was ordered before the 
captain. 

“ Spencer has talked with you about the plot?” said the captain. 

Small acquiesced. He was then ironed, and given to understand that 
he would be confined as the others were, brought home, and tried. 
The utmost vigilance was then enjoined upon the officers. All were 
armed, and either Lieutenant Gansevoort or Captain Mackenzie was 
constantly on deck. 

The next morning, which was Monday, the twenty-sixth of November, 
two crimes of considerable magnitude came to light. One of the men 
had been detected in stealing from a boat, and the steward had stolen 
money and given some of it to Spencer. This was no time to relax the 
discipline of the ship, and both the men were punished to the extent of 
the law. It was soon after found that a man named Waltham had told 
M’Kinley where three bottles of wine were placed, and offered them to 
him. M’Kinley was stationed near the arm-chest and reported this to 
the first lieutenant. Punishment of Waltham, however, was postponed 
till the next day. Punishment of the other two being over, the com¬ 
mander deemed it a fit opportunity to make an impression upon the crew. 
He had good reason to think that the danger of the conspiracy was not 
over; he believed that a majority of the crew might be said to be in 
general disaffected, and disposed to resist discipline. Some mysterious 
agency had evidently been at work since the departure of the Somers 
from New York, and this was now disclosed. 

Captain Mackenzie explained to the crew the general nature of 
Spencer’s plot, and the atrocious character of the designs he had formed. 
He took especial care not to betray a suspicion that he thought any 
particular one of them was deeply implicated, but exhorted all of them 
to repent of their intentions and attend faithfully to their duty. He look 
good care to assure them that the majority of the crew must at all events 
share the fate of the officers. He strove to divert their minds from the pic¬ 
tures of successful vice which Spencer had presented to them. He brought 
up before them images of friends at home; he endeavored to impress 
upon their minds the endearing nature of those ties of kindred from which 
Spencer had sought to sever them forever, and expressed the hope 
that within three weeks they should all be again among their friends. 
He thanked God that he had provided them all with dear friends who 
were deeply interested in their welfare, and that they had the prospect 
of so soon being once more among them. 

The effect of his address upon them was various. Many of them 
seemed delighted at their narrow delivery, and others seemed struck 
with horror at the thought of the terrible danger they had escaped. 
Some seemed overwhelmed with terror at the anticipation of punishment 
that awaited them. Others were overcome by thoughts of returning home, 
and wept profusely at the mention of the friends they hoped so soon to 
see. He could not help believing that all the crew were now tranquil, 
and that the vessel was again safe. Having observed that Spencer was 
endeavoring to hold intelligence with some of them, he directed the 
faces of all the prisoners to be turned aft, and that no tobacco should be 
allowed them when the supply they had upon their persons at the time 
of their arrest should be exhausted. He told them that he would see 
that they had everything necessary for their comfort; that each should 


MUTINY ON THE SOMERS. 


597 

have his ration; that they should be abundantly supplied with everything 
necessary for their health and convenience. But he told them that tobacco 
was only a stimulant, and that, as he wished their minds to become as 
quiet and tranquil as possible, he could not allow them to use it. 

The day after Spencer’s tobacco was stopped, his spirit gave way. He 
would sit for a long time with his face buried in his cloak, and when he 
raised his head, his face was bathed in tears. He was touched by the 
kind attention of Mr. Gansevoort. He told him that he was not then in 
a state to speak of anything, but that he would the next day tell him all— 
would answer any question that might be put to him. 

On Tuesday, after quarters, all hands were again called to witness 
punishment, and Waltham was punished to the extent of the law, for 
offering three bottles of wine to M’Kinley. Captain Mackenzie then 
spoke to the crew of the necessity of conforming in all particulars to the 
orders of the vessel, which were known. He told them that every pun¬ 
ishment on board must be made known to the Secretary of the Navy, and 
that the less they were in amount, the greater would be the credit that 
would attach to the commander and crew. 

But he soon discovered that the whole crew were far from tranquil. 
They collected in knots upon the deck—seditious words were heard among 
them—and they assumed an insolent and menacing tone. Some of the petty 
officers were examined and found to be true to the colors, but there was 
reason to fear that on that very night a rescue would be attempted. The 
commander obtained from time to time intelligence of various conferences 
among the disaffected; and individuals not before supposed to be deeply 
implicated, were now found in close association with those who were. 

During the first watch, while Midshipman Perry had charge of the 
deck, the boon-tackle was carried away. The officer of the deck told the 
boy at the wheel to get hold of the weather-sheet, and sung out “ Some 
of you come aft.” In similar cases, it had before been difficult to get 
enough aft to do the duty required, but now some fifteen or eighteen 
rushed aft; three were ordered to remain and the rest to go forwards 
Throughout the vessel there was strong evidence of an intention to attempt 
a rescue. The men talked together in an under tone. In the morning, 
while the crew were holystoning the deck, Wales being officer in charge 
of the prisoners, observed signs passing between Spencer, Wilson and 
M’Kinley; they put their hands to their chins, and Cromwell, who was 
lying on the arm-chest, rose up. Wales told him that his orders were 
to shoot him down if he made the least attempt to escape, and he should 
do so if he did not lie still. He then lay down. Wales then went back, 
with his pistol cocked, to the launch, where Wilson was looking about, 
and found that he had a number of the holystones out, and that he was 
taking out a handspike. Wales told him if he saw him making any 
further signs he would blow his brains out. He said nothing; did not 
put the handspike back, but went to draw some water. Wales expressed 
his fears to Commander Mackenzie and the first lieutenant, telling them 
he thought it dangerous to leave the holystones about, as they might be 
offensively used. While Spencer was in irons, near the battle-ax rack, 
he was observed trying how he could work an ax with his irons on, moving 
it up and down. After this was told to the first lieutenant, he told it to 
the captain, and the battle-axes were removed to the arm-chest. 

Rendered apprehensive by these indications upon the part of the crew, 
the commander felt more anxious than he had before done, and remained 
continually on deck. At twelve o’clock, when the watch was called, 


MUTINY ON THE SOMERS. 


598 

M’Kinley, Green, and others, seriously implicated, missed their muster; 
they could not be asleep, and why they should be absent just al that time, 
when they never had been before, was not easy to be seen. When they 
appeared, they all had some lame excuse. They probably had agreed 
to meet at the time, and to commence some act of violence. Green said 
he could not get aft. The commander rejected his excuse with an ex¬ 
clamation of impatience, and ordered him to take the forward look-out 
for four hours. 

“ At four o’clock others missed their muster,” continues the narrative 
of the captain. “ I heard of this with the greatest uneasiness. Where, 
1 asked, was this to end? If the men upon a bright night like this seem 
mutinous and disposed to undertake the rescue of those confined; on a 
bad night, in a storm, in the midst of utter darkness, how much greater 
will be the probability of a rescue? If all suspected should be ironed, 
would the danger be over? What sympathy might not be felt for the 
prisoners? These matters crowded upon my mind. I considered the 
imminent peril which hung over the lives of the officers and crew; I 
thought of the seas traversed in every direction by merchantmen, unarmed 
and defenseless; I thought of what was due to the interests of commerce, 
to the safety of the lives of thousands upon the deep, to the sanctity of 
the American flag, entrusted to my care, and to my own honor. All 
these considerations impressed me with the absolute necessity of adopting 
some further means of security for the vessel which had been given to 
my charge. 

u I took council with the first lieutenant, and was fortified in my pur¬ 
poses by finding his opinion identical with my own. In so grave a case, 
involving so many interests and such high responsibilities, I felt desirous 
of having the opinion of all my officers upon the matter, though not a 
shadow of doubt remained in my mind of the guilt of the prisoners, should 
their execution be deemed necessary. I did not forget that the officers 
were still boys, and that all the responsibility of the proceeding must rest 
upon the older and higher officers. Still I felt desirous to have their 
opinion, and accordingly addressed them the following letter. 

“ U. S. Brig Somers, November 30 tk, 1042. 

“ Gentlemen: I am desirous of availing myself of your counsel in the 
very responsible position in which I find myself placed. You are aware 
of the circumstances which resulted in the confinement of Midshipman 
Spencer, of Boatswain’s-mate Cromwell, and of Seaman Small; and I 
purposely abstain from entering into details concerning them. Neces¬ 
sarily ignorant, as I am, of the extent of disaffection among the crew who 
have so long been tampered with, and knowing the suspicion which 
attaches to some of the crew who are at large, I address you and ask 
your united counsel as to the best course now to be pursued; and I call 
upon you to take into deliberate and dispassionate consideration, the 
conduct which will be necessary for a safe continuance of the remainder 
of our course, and to enlighten me with your opinion as to the proper 
method to be pursued. 

I am, your obedient servant, 

Alex. Slidell Mackenzie, 

Commander. 


“Lieut. Gansevoort, and others.” 


MUTINY ON THE SOMERS. 


599 

After I had written this letter, but before I had sent it, at about nine 
o’clock, Wilson being foiled in his attempt to get up an outbreak at night, 
and feeling that he was narrowly watched and was no longer left at liberty, 
came forward and made some lame and worthless confession, and re¬ 
quested that he might not be put in irons. I told him that if he had 
made any real confession, in sincerity and truth, he should not be molested; 
but that it was an insult to his officer to offer him so lame a story as that 
he had told. Nothing more could be got out of him, and he was 
immediately put in irons. 

While on the African coast 1 knew that he had procured an extraor¬ 
dinary knife, broad in the middle, and running to a point. He had made 
it very sharp on both sides. It was a singular weapon, of no use except 
to kill. He had been seen also the day before sharpening his battle-ax 
with a file, and had brought one part of it to an edge. This Was a thing 
never allowed or known before on board. M’Kinley was now arrested. 
He was evidently the individual in every way the most formidable of all 
concerned.—M’Kee was also put in irons. They were made to sit down; 
and when the irons were put on I walked around the batteries, followed 
by Lieutenant Gansevoort, and made a careful inspection. 

On the receipt of my letter the officers immediately assembled and 
entered upon the examination of witnesses, who were sworn and their 
testimony written down. In addition to this each witness signed the 
evidence he gave. In this employment the officers passed the whole day 
without interruption, and without taking the least food. I remained, my¬ 
self, in charge of the deck. The officers were excused from watch duty, 
and the watches were so arranged that two in succession fell to me. On 
the first of December the first lieutenant presented me with the following 
letter: 


“U. S. Brig Somers, December 1 st, 1842. 


“Sir: In answer to your letter requiring our counsel as to the best 
course to be pursued with regard to the prisoners, Spencer, Cromwell 
and Small, we have the honor to state, that the evidence which has come 
to our knowledge after the rqost careful, deliberate and dispassionate 
consideration which the exigency would allow, is of such a nature as to 
call for the most decided action. We are convinced that in the existing 
state of things, it will be impossible to carry the prisoners to the United 
States. We think that the safety of our lives, and honor of the flag en¬ 
trusted to our charge, require that the prisoners be put to death, as the 
course best calculated to make a salutary impression upon the rest of the 
crew. In this decision we trust we have been guided by our duty to our 
God, to our country, and to the service. 


Respectfully, your obedient servants, 

Lieut. Gansevoort, and others. 


“ Com. Mackenzie.” 


I at once concurred in the justice of this opinion, and made prepara¬ 
tions to carry the recommendation into effect. Two other conspirators 
were almost as guilty as the three singled out for execution: they could 
be kept confined without extreme danger to the ultimate safety of the 
vessel. The three chief mutineers were the only ones capable of navi¬ 
gating and sailing the vessel. By their removal, all motive to capture 


MUTINY ON THE SOMERS. 


000 

the vessel and carry out their original design would be at once taken 
away. Their lives were justly forfeited, and the interests of the country, 
the safety of the sea, and the honor of the flag, required the sacrifice. 

In the necessity of my position I found my law; and in that necessity 
I trust for justification. I thought it best to arm the petty officers; on 
this point only the first lieutenant differed from me; and I found that he 
was of the same opinion with some of the petty officers themselves;— 
they said that since I could not tell whom to trust, it would be best to 
trust no one. I made up my mind, and judged of the characters whom 
I could trust, and determined to arm them. I ordered to be issued to 
each a cutlass, a pistol, and cartridges. I ordered preparation also to be 
made for execution of the three. All hands were called to witness 
punishment. The whips were arranged, the officers were stationed about 
the deck, and the petty officers were directed to cut down every one who 
should let go his whip or fail to haul when ordered. 

I put on my full uniform, came on deck, and proceeded to execute 
the most painful duty that ever devolved upon any officer in the American 
Navy—the announcement to the prisoners of the fate that awaited them. 

I approached Spencer and said to him, You were about to take my life, 
Mr. Spencer, without provocation, without cause or the slightest offense. 
You intended to kill me suddenly, in the night, while I was buried in 
sleep, without giving me a single moment to send one word of affection 
to my wife, one prayer to God for her welfare. Your life is now forfeited; 
and the necessity of the case compels me to take it. I do not intend, 
however, to imitate you in the mode of claiming the sacrifice. If there 
be in your breast one feeling true to nature, you will be grateful for the 
premature disclosure of your horrible designs. You surely ought to be 
thankful that you have been prevented from the terrible deeds you medi¬ 
tated. If you have any word to send to your father, any satisfaction to 
express to him that you were not allowed to become a pirate, as you 
ought to do, you will have ten minutes granted in which to write it. 
Midshipman Thompson was then directed to note the time and inform 
us when it had expired. 

Spencer seemed overcome with emotion. He »burst into a flood of 
tears, sank on his knees, and said he was not fit to die. I repeated to 
him his catechism, and begged him to offer sincere prayers for the divine 
forgiveness. I recommended to him the English Prayer Book, assuring 
him that he would fend in it something suited to all his necessities. 
Cromwell fell upon his knees, protesting his innocence, and invoking the 
name of his wife. Spencer declared that Cromwell was innocent, and 
begged that this might be believed. This, I confess, staggered me; but 
the evidence of his guilt was conclusive. Lieutenant Gansevoort said 
that there was not a shadow of doubt of it. 

The petty officers said he was the one man from whom real appre¬ 
hension was entertained. He was at first the accomplice of Spencer, 
and was then urged on by him, and had been by him turned to his account. 
I tried to show him how Spencer had endeavored to use him, and told 
Spencer that he had made remarks about him he would not consider 
flattering. He expressed great anxiety to know what they were. I told 

him Cromwell had said of him and another person that ‘there was a- 

fool on one side, and a-knave on the other,’ and told him that Cromwell 

would have allowed him to live only so long as he could have made him 
useful to himself. This roused him, and from that time he said no more 
of Cromwell’s innocence. 





MUTINY ON THE SOMERS. 


601 

Subsequent circumstances made me believe that Spencer wished to 
save him, probably from the hope that he would yet get possession of the 
vessel and carry out his original design; and, perhaps, that Cromwell 
would in some way effect his rescue. He endeavored, at the same time, 
to persuade me that Small was only an alias for some one else on his list, 
though this was proved to be false. Small alone was the one we had set 
down as the poltroon of the three; yet he received the announcement 
of his fate with great composure. He was asked what preparation he 
wished to make. He said he had none: 4 Nobody cares for me,’ said he, 
4 but my poor old mother, and I would rather she would not know what 
has become of me.’ 

I returned to Spencer. I asked him what message he had to send to 
his friends. He said, 4 None. Tell them that I die wishing them every 
blessing and happiness. I deserve death for this and my other crimes. 
There are few crimes I have not committed. I am sincerely penitent for 
them all. I only fear my repentance is too late.’ I asked him if there 
was any one whom he had injured to whom he could make reparation— 
any one who Was suffering obloquy on his account. He said, 4 No; but 
this will kill my poor mother.’ I did not know before that he had a mother, 
and was touched by his allusion to her. I asked him if it would not have 
been far more dreadful if he had succeeded in his attempt—if it were 
not much better to die as he would, than to become a pirate and steep 
himself so terribly in blood and guilt. He said, 4 1 do not know what would 
have become of me if I had succeeded.’ 

I told him that Cromwell would soon have made away with him, and 
that M’Kinley would probably have destroyed them both. He said he 
feared this would injure his father. Had you succeeded, I replied, the 
injury you would have done him would have been much greater. If it 
had been possible to take him home, as I first intended, I told him that 
he would have got clear, as in America a man with money and influential 
friends would always be cleared;* that the course I was taking would 
injure his father less than if he should go home and be condemned, yet 
again escape. He said that he had attempted the same thing on board 
the John Adams and the Potomac, but had been unsuccessful. He 
asked if I had not exaggerated the danger. I told him No; that his 
attempts to corrupt the crew had been too widely successful; that I knew 
of the existence of the conspiracy, but did not know how extensive it was. 
I recapitulated to him his acts. He was startled when I told him of his 
stealing brandy. He admitted the justice of his fate, but asked me if I 
was not going too far and too fast. 4 Does the law justify you?’ said he. 
I replied that his opinion was not unprejudiced; that I had consulted all 
the officers and they had given ^heir opinion that it was just—that he 
deserved death. 

He asked what would be the manner of his death. I explained it to 
him. He requested that he might be shot. I told him that it could not 
be—that he must be hung. He admitted that it was just. He objected 
to the shortness of the time, and requested that an hour might be given 
to prepare. I made no answer to this, but allowed much more than the 
hour he asked for to elapse. He requested that his face might be covered. 

I granted his request and asked him what it should be covered with. 
He said a handkerchief. In his locker was found a black one, which 


* Perhaps this is an extreme and erroneous opinion, and not just. But I am merely 
stating facts—what passed on the occasion. 



602 


MUTINY ON THE SOMERS. 


was put on his face. Cromwell and Small made the same request, and 
frocks were taken from their lockers with which their heads were 
covered. 

Spencer asked for a Bible and Prayer Book—they were given to him. 
He said ‘ I am a believer—but do you think that my repentance will be 
accepted?’ I called to his mind the thief on the cross, and told him that 
God’s mercies were equal to all his wants. He kneeled down and read 
from the Prayer Book, and asked again if I thought his repentance would 
be accepted, saying that his time was short. I told him God not only 
understood his case but could suit his grace to it. He begged that I 
would forgive him. I told him I did, most sincerely and cordially, and 
asked him if I had done anything which made him seek my life, or 
whether his hatred was unfounded. He said he thought it was only fancy. 
‘Perhaps,’ he added, ‘there was something in your manner which offended 
me.’ I read over to him what I had written down. He wished me to 
alter the passage in which I said that he ‘ offered as an excuse ,’ that he 
had attempted the same thing on the John Adams and Potomac. He only 
mentioned it as a fact, he said. 

More than an hour had now elapsed. Spencer, as he met Cromwell, 
paused and asked to see Mr. Wales. As he passed Cromwell, he said 
not a word of his innocence, nor did he make any appeal in his favor. 
Spencer said, ‘Wales. I hope you will forgive me for tampering with 
your fidelity.’ Wales replied, overcome with emotion, ‘ I do forgive you 
from the bottom of my heart, and I hope God will forgive you also.’ 
Wales was weeping; and Spencer, in passing, met Small at the gangway. 
He extended his hand and said, ‘ Small, forgive me for having brought 

you into trouble.’ Small answered, ‘ No,-Spencer, I cannot 

forgive you.’ Spencer repeated his request. Small said, ‘ How can you 
ask that of me after having brought me to this? We shall soon be before 
God, and shall there know all about it.’ Spencer said, ‘ You must for¬ 
give me—I cannot die without it.’ I went to Small and asked him not 
to cherish any resentment at such a time, and asked him to forgive 
him. He relented—held out his hand to Spencer and said, ‘ I do forgive 
you—and may God forgive you also.’ 

Small then asked my forgiveness. I took his hand and expressed my 
forgiveness in the strongest terms. I asked him what I had done that 
he should seek my life; if I had been harsh either in deed or word to 
him. He exclaimed, ‘ What have you done to me? Nothing—but treated 
me like a man.’ I told him of the high responsibilities under which I 
acted; of the duty I owed my Government and the ship with which it had 
entrusted me; of his offense to his commander and the boys he intended 
to put to death; and of the high duty. T owed to the flag of my country. 
Right! he exclaimed; ‘God bless that flag and prosper it! Now,’ said 
he, ‘give me a quick and easy death.’ Spencer said to Lieutenant 
Gansevoort that his courage had been doubted; but he wished him to bear 
witness that he died like a brave man. 

He asked what would be the signal for his execution. I told him that 
I was desirous of hoisting colors at the instant, to show that the flag of the 
Somers was fixed at the mast-head; and that I intended to beat the call 
to hoist colors and then roll off; and at the third roll a gun would be fired 
as the signal. He asked leave to give the signal. I at once acceded. 
He asked if it was the gun under him. I told him it was but one removed. 
He asked if it would be fired by a lock and wafer. 1 was told that pre¬ 
parations had been made to fire it with a match;* and immediately ordered 



MUTINY ON THE SOMERS. 


603 

a supply of live coals, and fresh coals to be passed constantly; and then 
assured him that there should be no delay. The time was now wearing 
away. Small requested leave to address the crew. Spencer having had 
leave to give the signal, was asked if he would give Small the leave he 
asked. He said yes. Small then said: 

4 Shipmates and topmates —Take warning by my example. I never 
killed a man, but only said that I would do it, and for that I am about to 
die. Going in a Guineaman [a slaver] brought me to this. Take warning, 
and never go in a Guineaman.’ Turning to Spencer, he said, ‘I am 
ready to die; are you?’ 

Cromwell’s last words were, ‘ Tell my wife that I die innocent; 1 die 
an innocent man.’ From the appearance of this man in assuming to be 
innocent, it would seem that Spencer took all the risk of the affair, and 
Cromwell intended to profit by it. 

I placed myself where I could take in the whole deck with my eye. 
No word was given by Spencer. lie finally said he could not give the 
word, and wished me to do it. The word was accordingly given and the 
execution took place. 

The crew were ordered aft, when I addressed them. I called their 
attention to the fate of the young men who had just been hung in their 
presence. 1 spoke of the distinguished social position Spencer had held 
at home, and held up before them the career of usefulness and profes¬ 
sional honor to which a course of faithful duty would have raised him. 
After having been but a few months at sea, he had criminally aspired 
to supplant me in a command I had earned by thirty years’ faithful service. 
Their own future fortunes, I told them, were within their own control. 

1 opened to them the stations of respectability and of future honor to 
which they might rise, but told them it could only be step by step, in a 
regular course. I called their attention also to Cromwell’s course. He 
had received a handsome education, and his handwriting was even elegant; 
but he had also failed through his love for gold. The first 815 he had 
received from Spencer had bought him, and the hope of great plunder 
had secured the purchase. An anecdote had been told to me by Collins 
of Cromwell, which carried its own moral with it, and which I desired 
Collins to repeat. He did so: he told them that he once went to India 
with Cromwell, and that they took on board there a keg of doubloons for 
Mr. Thorndike. Collins alone knew of its being aboard, and kept it a 
secret till they went ashore. He then told Cromwell of it, who laughed 
at him, and said that if 4 he had known about it, he would have run away 
with the keg.’ I told the crew they had only to choose between the two— 
Collins and Cromwell. Small also had been brought up to better things, 
but had not been able to resist temptation, and had died invoking blessings 
on the flag of his country. 

All hands were then called to cheer ship, and gave three hearty cheers. 
Three heartier cheers never went up from the deck of an American ship! 
In that electric moment I verily believe the purest and loftiest patriotism 
burst forth from the breasts even of the worst conspirators. From that 
moment I felt that I was again completely master of my vessel , and that 
I could do with her whatever the honor of my country required. 

Dinner was piped, and 1 noticed with feelings of pain that some of the 
boys, as they passed the bodies, laughed and sneered at them. I still 
desired that Spencer should be buried in a coffin, and gave orders to 
have one built. But Lieutenant Gansevoort offered to relinquish a mess 
chest he had, for that purpose, which was soon converted into a substantial 


MUTINY ON THE SOMERS. 


604 

coffin. The watch was set, and the bodies were lowered. They were 
received by their messmates, to be decently laid out for burial. The 
midshipmen assisted in the duty. Spencer was laid out clothed in his 
complete uniform, except his sword, which he had forfeited the right to 
wear. I noticed that upon the hands of one of the others a seaman had 
tied a ribbon, with the name upon it of that Somers who so distinguished 
himself by his gallantry, patriotism, and skill. On Cromwell’s face a 
saber-cut was visible, and on removing his hair four or five more were 
discovered; which showed that he had been where wounds were given. 
He was said to have been in a slaver, and in Moro Castle in Havana; 
and it was the general impression that he had been a pirate. 

A squall of rain soon sprung up, which rendered it necessary to cover 
the bodies with tarpaulins. They were arranged according to their rank, 
and all hands were called to bury the dead. The American Ensign was 
lowered to half-mast. Night had now set in. All the lamps were lit and 
distributed among the crew and placed in the bows, in the gangway, and 
in the quarter boat. The service for the dead was read, and the bodies 
were committed to the deep. The offices were closed by reading that 
beautiful prayer, so suitable to the occasion , 1 Preserve us from the dangers 
of the seas and the violence of enemies. Bless the United States:— 
watch over all that are upon the deep, and protect the inhabitants of the 
land in peace and quiet, through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ 

In reading this I sincerely thanked God for the protection of the 
Somers, and felt a firm faith that he would sanction the deed of that day. 
On the following Sunday, the fourth of December, after the laws for the 
government of the navy had been read, according to invariable custom on 
board the Somers, I took occasion to allude to the lessons to be drawn from 
the fate of those who had suffered. I led the minds of the crew back to 
their youthful days, and showed them how they had trampled under foot 
the wise counsel and admonitions of their friends. In Small’s locker 
were letters from his mother, expressing the joy she felt that he was so 
happy on board the Somers. (This was before Spencer had joined.) 
There was also a Bible, in the leaves of which he had copied some verses 
from the Sailor’s Magazine, in praise of its holy precepts. These verses 
I read to the crew. I thus showed them how Small valued his Bible, 
but that he did not resist temptation. I urged them to read it closely and 
attend faithfully to its precepts. I endeavored to show that there could be 
no such thing as honest Atheism. I held up before them how Spencer had 
injured many people, and especially his parents. He had lacked filial piety 
and piety toward God—two principles which would never have suffered 
him to go astray. In conclusion, I called on them as they had given three 
cheers for their country, now to give three cheers for God—as they would 
do by singing his praise. The colors were then hoisted, and above 
the American Ensign was raised the Banner of the Cross—the only flag 
that ever floats above it from any vessel under my command. The hundredth 
Psalm was sung, after which the crew dispersed. I could not help, on 
that day of peaceful Sabbath worship, contrasting the condition of my 
vessel with that she would have presented had she fallen into pirates’ 
hands. Nor could I avoid observing the marked effect produced upon 
the ship’s company by the proceedings. I was satisfied at once that all 
danger was past, and the mutiny broken forever. 

On the fourteenth of December the Somers arrived at New York, and 
in a day or two the sad catastrophe was communicated to the world. 
Captain Mackenzie sent a narrative of the affair to the seat of government, 


MUTINY ON THE SOMERS. 605 

and a court of inquiry was appointed by Mr. Upshur, the Secretary of 
the Navy, to examine the facts connected with the mutiny. 

This court, consisting of Commodore Charles Stewart, President; 
Commodore A. J. Dallas; Commodore Jacob Jones; Hon. Ogden Hoffman, 
Judge Advocate , met on board the United States ship North Carolina, 
lying in the harbor at New York, on Wednesday, December the twenty- 
eighth, 1842, at eleven o’clock. Many distinguished persons were 
present, and Captain Mackenzie appeared in full uniform. “ He is,” 
says the New York Tribune, “ a man of medium height, with a fine 
head covered rather thinly by light auburn hair, a high forehead, and an 
amiable and pleasing rather than stern and commanding presence.” 

The examination of witnesses commenced, and nineteen days were 
taken up in the inquiry. The president then stated that the testimony 
being now closed, the court would be cleared, which was accordingly 
done. The court then deliberated and framed their decision in secret, 
and sent it on to Washington for approval. 

The authorities at Washington subsequently ordered a court martial, 
which was accordingly opened, a re-examination of the witnesses took 
place, and after a protracted trial Captain Mackenzie and Lieutenant 
Gansevoort were acquitted. 

Thus was crushed, by a vengeance swifter and more terrible than 
human laws usually allot to human crimes, the first, as we fervently trust 
it will be the last, regularly organized attempt at mutiny on board a vessel 
intrusted with the honor and interests of the United States Navy. If the 
attempt had succeeded, imagination shudders at the black pall of horror 
and dread that would have fallen upon the sea. 

All the officers examined, solemnly declared that they believed neces¬ 
sity demanded the course pursued—that if the execution of Spencer, 
Cromwell, and Small, had not been resorted to, the Somers would 
never have reached any port under the command of her officers, but 
would have leen a Pirate, scouring the ocean with destructive fury, 
making it a highway of blood and terror to the world. If this belief be 
well founded, we should rejoice that so terrible a calamity, so black a 
disgrace, was not suffered to stain the escutcheon of our navy! 

Under the impulse of thankfulness for what was regarded as a great 
danger escaped, and a great ignominy avoided, the country, generally, 
applauded the act of Captain Mackenzie as justified by the emergency 
of the case, and by the crimes of the victims. Commerce and trade, 
from their very nature, are timid, and it is not strange that the great com¬ 
mercial cities of the Atlantic should have given way to the impulse of the 
moment, and have justified the doubtful act instead of remembering the 
sanctity of every human life, until such life has been pronounced forfeited 
according to the form, and by the authority of the law. 

But now that years have elapsed since the painful occurrence, it is 
probable that the more thoughtful of the mercantile as of other classes, 
cherish serious doubts, to say the least, of the necessity or expediency 
of the course pursued. The great law of humanity, as well as the law of 
the Lord, demands that every man accused of crime, shall be tried not 
by hurried and frightened courts, but by the calm deliberate judgment 
of his peers. Hardly any necessity can arise in time of general peace 
to justify a departure from this salutary requirement. 



GOO 


MUTINY ON THE SOMERS. 


ABSTRACT OF AMERICAN NAUTICAL LAWS. 

Shipping articles are required to be signed by every mariner, declaring 
the voyage and the term of the time for which the seamen are shipped, 
and when they are to render themselves on board. Seamen are liable 
to imprisonment for desertion. But if the master sails and leaves a 
seaman in imprisonment abroad, he will be enlitled to his wages till his 
return to the United States, deducting the time of imprisonment. Pro¬ 
vision is made for the prompt recovery of seamen’s wages, by admiralty 
process against the ship, if the wages be not paid within ten days. 

It is the duty of the American consuls and commercial agents, to 
relieve American seamen who may be found destitute in foreign ports, 
and to provide for their passage to some port in the United States, at the 
expense of the United States. American vessels are bound to take them, 
not exceeding two for every hundred tons, at a rate not exceeding ten 
dollars per man. 

If an American vessel be sold in a foreign port, or a seaman discharged 
with the master’s consent, the master is obliged to pay the consul three 
months’ wages beside the amount then due, two months to be paid to the 
seamen when they engage again, and one month’s pay to the fund for 
the return of American seamen. 

The master has the right to discharge a seaman for just cause in a 
foreign port, but is responsible in damages if he does it without just cause. 
The master must be supreme in the ship. The French law affords 
peculiar protection to seamen, and prohibits the master from discharging 
a seaman, for any cause, in a foreign country. 

The expense of curing a sick seaman in the course of the voyage is a 
charge upon the ship; and this rule recommends itself as much by its 
intrinsic equity and sound policy, as by the sanction of general authority. 
Such an expense is in the nature of additional wages during sickness, 
and it constitutes a material ingredient in the just remuneration of seamen 
for their labor and services. This claim, equally with a claim for wages, 
may be enforced in a court of admiralty. 

Every seaman engaged to serve on board a ship, is bound, from the 
nature and terms of the contract, to do his duty to the utmost of his ability, 
and, therefore, a promise made by the master when the ship is in distress, 
or when some of the crew are sick, or the like, to pay extra wages, as 
an inducement to extraordinary exertion, is illegal and void. It requires 
some service not within the scope of the original contract, as by becoming 
a hostage, or the like, to create a valid claim for extra wages. No wages 
can be recovered for an illegal voyage, for the law will not countenance 
such a contract, nor permit any one to claim the wages of iniquity. 

A seaman is entitled to his wages for the whole voyage, even though 
he is unable to render his service by sickness, or bodily injury, happening 
in the course of the voyage, and while in the performance of his duty; 
or if wrongfully discharged by the master in the course of the voyage, 
or forced to quit the ship by the cruelty of the master. In this case the 
voyage is ended as to him, and he is immediately entitled to his wages 
for the whole voyage. 

The general principle of the marine law is, that freight is the mother 
of wages, and if no freight be earned, no wages are due. If the ship 
perish by the perils of the sea, as tempest, fire, enemies, etc., the mariners 
lose their wages. Otherwise they might not use their endeavors to save 


ABSTRACT OF AMERICAN NAUTICAL LAWS. 


607 

the ship. But the seamen do not lose their wages, if the freight is lost 
by the misconduct of the master. 

When a seaman dies on the voyage, his wages are due to his repre¬ 
sentatives, up to the time of his death. The seamen’s wages on the 
outward voyage are due when the ship delivers her outward cargo. 
And if the owners and the charterer agree to consider the voyages 
out and home as one entire voyage, they cannot, by this, deprive the 
seamen, without their consent, of the rights belonging to them by the 
general principles of the marine law. Capture by an enemy extinguishes 
the seamen’s contract for wages, but if by recapture, the owner recovers 
his freight, the seamen recover their wages, for freight is the parent of 
wages. And this holds for those seamen who remain prisoners and 
render no assistance in the recapture, or afterward; because they are suf¬ 
fering in the service. And in case of shipwreck, if any portion of freight 
is paid for the cargo saved, the wages of the seamen are due in the same 
proportion. 

Every agreement that goes to separate the demand for wages, from the 
fact of freight being earned, is viewed with distrust by the court, as an 
encroachment on the rights of seamen. u The courts of maritime law 
extend to them a peculiar protecting favor, and treat them as wards of 
the admiralty; and though they are not incapable of making valid con¬ 
tracts, they are treated by the courts in the same manner that courts of 
equity are accustomed to treat young heirs dealing with their expectancies, 
wards with their guardians, etc. They are considered as placed under 
the influence of men who have naturally acquired a mastery over them. 
Every deviation from the terms of the common shipping paper is rigidly 
inspected, and if additional burdens are imposed upon the seamen, 
without adequate remuneration, the courts will interfere, and moderate 
or annul the stipulation.” 

Mariners are bound to contribute out of their wages for embezzlement 
of the cargo, or injuries produced by the misconduct of any of the crew. 
But the individual criminal must be unknown, and circumstances must 
be such as clearly to fix and prove the wrong upon some of the crew; 
and then those of the crew upon whom the presumption of guilt rests, 
must stand sureties for each other, and contribute rateably to the loss. 
If an individual can free himself from suspicion, he does not contribute. 
And if no reasonable presumption lies against any of the crew, the loss 
falls upon the owner or master. 

In case of shipwreck, and there are materials of the ship saved, the 
seamen by whose exertions they are saved, are entitled to their wages 
out of the proceeds of the fragments, even although no freight was earned 
to the owners. Chancellor Kent, however, thinks that in such a case, 
the allowance to seamen out of the wreck ought to be called salvage. 
“ Wages, in such cases, would be contrary to the great principle in marine 
law, that freight is the mother of wages, and the safety of the ship the 
mother of freight.” 

The wages of seamen constitute a lien upon the ship, which does not, 
like other liens, depend on possession. Seamen’s wages are hardly 
earned, and liable to many contingencies, by which they may be entirely 
lost, without any fault on their part. Few claims are so highly favored 
by law, and when due, the vessel, owners, and master, are all liable for 
them. Their demand takes precedence of all bottomry bonds, and is 
good against even a subsequent bona fide purchaser. It is a sacred 
claim, and as long as a single plank of the ship remains, the sailor is 


ABSTRACT OF AMERICAN NAUTICAL LAWS. 


608 

entitled, as against all other persons, to the proceeds, as security for his 
wages. The wages of seamen do not contribute to the general average, 
when a loss of goods, masts, or the like, is voluntarily incurred at sea for 
the common safety, except in the single instance of the ransom of the 
ship. They are exempted here, lest the fear of personal loss should 
restrain them from making the requisite sacrifice; and the hardships 
and perils they endure, well entitle them to an exemption from further 
distress. 

Desertion from a ship without just cause, or the justifiable discharge 
of a seaman by the master for bad conduct, will work a forfeiture of the 
wages previously earned. This is the rule of justice and of policy. But 
if the seaman quits the vessel involuntarily, or is driven ashore by reason 
of cruel usage, and for personal safety, the wages are not forfeited. On 
the other hand, it is the duty of the seamen to abide by the vessel as 
long as reasonable hope remains; and if they desert the ship in the perils 
of the sea, when they might have prevented damage, or saved the vessel, 
they forfeit their wages and are answerable in damages. 

So liberal and kind is the care which our laws have taken for the 
interests of seamen in the merchant service. It would seem that nothing 
more is wanting for their benefit, excepting a more effectual security for 
the kind of provision which is to be made for them when they fall into 
sickness or distress in a foreign port, and some arrangement for their 
comfortable support, when worn out and decrepit at home. 


MEN AND THINGS 


IN THE 

NAYY OF THE UNITED STATES. 


AS DESCRIBED BY THE REV. CHA8. ROCKWELL, LATE CHAPLAIN IN THE 


AMERICAN NAVAL SERVICE. 


As the condition and character of our Navy, and the reputation and 
conduct of its officers and men abroad, are matters of national interest 
and concern, it may not be amiss, briefly to allude to these and other 
kindred topics. To enter fully upon them, and give at length the 
results of years of free daily intercourse with seafaring men of all 
classes, as suggested by a close and constant observation of their peculiar 
habits and modes of thought and feeling, and a sincere and heartfelt 
sympathy with them and their friends, under the severe and varied trials 
of their lot—fully to present these points, would indeed require a 
volume. 

With a view to aid us in forming a correct estimate of our navy, as 
also to furnish with important facts, those illustrious orators who are 
wont to speak of our ships of war as fully able to sweep the vessels of 
all other nations from the face of the ocean, it may be well to give the 
following statement of the naval forces of the United States, Great 
Britain, and France, as they were some few years since, and which have 
not since relatively materially changed. Including those in commission, 
as also those building and afloat, there were belonging to the Navy of 
the United States, 68 vessels of war; to that of France, 486; to Great 
Britain, 702. 

In speaking of those who man our ships of war, I shall begin with 
such as are rated as boys. Of these, we had nearly thirty on board our 
ship, many of whom were taken from the House of Refuge, in New 
York, or were the sweepings of the streets of our large cities. Some 
were children of poor parents, who had been placed under the care of 
some sailor of their acquaintance, to take their first lesson in shiperaft, 
and, I may add, in devilcraft, too, on board a man-of-war; for surely a 
boy must be a dull scholar, who, in such a place, would not learn far 
more evil than good. These boys were from ten to sixteen or seventeen 
years of age, and some of them, from having been familiar, from their 
earliest years, with vice and crime, in almost every form, were among 
the most hardened, hopeless vagabonds in the world; and yet, they had 
so much shrewdness and intelligence, and such perfect self-possession 
in all circumstances, that one could not but feel a peculiar interest in 
them. 

In turning from the boys to the men on board our ships of war, let us 
first notice the marines. These are soldiers who dress in uniform, are 
placed as sentries in different parts of the ship, and arc not required to 
1 39 (609) 



MEN AND THINGS IN THE AMERICAN NAVY. 


610 

go aloft on sailor’s duty, but aid in pulling the ropes on deck. They 
have their own officers, distinct from those of the ship; and as they 
know but little of sea-life, and are placed on board as a restraint upon 
the sailors, the latter do not like them, are fond of playing tricks upon 
them, and especially of palming off upon them all sorts of improbable 
stories as true. Hence the common proverb, “ Tell that to the marines,” 
which is used when one listens to a doubtful or incredible story. 

We had on board our ship fifty-two marines, of whom twenty-two were 
foreigners; thirteen of this number being Swiss. They had an efficient 
commander, and were under excellent discipline. On one occasion, 
when off the coast of Africa, some oranges and bananas, which hung where 
sentries had charge of them, were stolen, and hence some one of the 
six marines, who had been on duty there during the night, must have 
connived at the theft. But as all denied being guilty, they were all 
whipped, that thus the right one might be punished, and all collusion as 
to screening each other in future might be prevented. This was indeed 
summary justice; and yet, among men in whose word you cannot con¬ 
fide, you must either lump matters in this way, or crime will thrive and 
pass unpunished. As it was, no more fruit was stolen. 

Among the marines there are often men of education and intelligence, 
who, as merchants that have failed in business, or the profligate sons of 
respectable parents, or professional men, who have become dissipated, 
have seen better days; but having fallen from their former condition, 
have fled to a man-of-war as a place of refuge from trouble or disgrace. 
Not to dwell on other cases, we had with us a young man, who had 
come from a foreign country to obtain an education. While a senior at 
Yale College, he became involved in a fracas, for which he was dismissed 
from the institution; and thinking that he was not kindly treated by his 
guardian in this country, he enlisted as a marine. Such men like to 
dwell upon their brighter days; and where they find one who will listen 
to and sympathize with them, they take a kind of melancholy pleasure 
in minutely describing the scenes of trial and disgrace through which 
they have passed. There are many such, as well among the seamen as 
the marines, on board a ship of war; and often has my heart been deeply 
pained, when listening to the story of their woes. When in port, 
marines are stationed at every accessible entrance to the ship, to prevent 
men from deserting, and ardent spirits from being smuggled on board. 
Next to the officers of the ship, the marines are the main reliance 
for quelling a mutiny, and sustaining rightful authority on board our 
men-of-war. 

In a crew of from five hundred to a thousand men, as collected 
together on board our larger ships, one meets with seamen of every 
class and condition, and of almost every nation under heaven. Most 
common sailors are of no nation, but change from the employ of one to 
that of another, just as convenience, or caprice, or higher wages may 
induce them to do so. We have many English seamen on board our ships 
of war; and it is said, that there are some thousand American sailors in 
the English Navy. That by desertion, or otherwise, men are constantly 
passing from one service to the other, is well known. 

As those who ship seamen often receive so much a head for all they 
furnish, no very close inquiries are made as to whether a seaman’s 
protection, as it is called, that is, the legal paper which certifies to what 
nation he belongs, tells the truth about him or not; for, aside from false 
swearing, at which few common sailors would hesitate, there are other 


MEN AND THINGS IN THE AMERICAN NAVY. 611 

ways in which seamen obtain new papers, and a new name. For 
example, we had on board our ship a foreigner by the name of John 
Cole, a Swede, or a Dane, if I mistake not. He spoke English in a 
very broken manner, and this led me to ask him, one day, how he came 
to have such a regular built Yankee name. 

66 I bought it of a landlord in Portland,” was his reply. 

u What did you give for it?” 

u Fifty cents,” he said; “ but I’ve got most sick of it, and shall change 
it for another before long.” And thus it is often true that sailor-land- 
lords sell the papers of seamen who have died in their houses, or have 
gone to sea leaving them behind. Many of the seamen in our navy, ship 
by a new name almost every cruise. 

But few officers and men of the old school now remain in our navy. 
By this I mean those who were trained amid scenes of war and carnage, 
and were more distinguished for their rough and reckless manners and 
habits, and their noisy, dare-devil bravery, than for improvement of mind, 
or a desire so to shape their course as to please those around them. 
The fact that many of the officers of our navy were formerly taken from 
the merchant service, with more regard to their energy of character and 
good seamanship than to their education and refinement of manners, 
together with the exciting influence of war, and the demoniac power 
of ardent spirits, gave a far ruder and more turbulent cast to our navy 
in former days than now belongs to it. By raising the standard of edu¬ 
cation among our naval officers, by limiting their power of inflicting 
punishment, and by promoting temperance among the men, a tranquiliz- 
ing, elevating influence has been exerted on board our ships of war; so 
that now they deserve, far less than formerly, the appellation of “ floating 
hells.” Still much remains to be done, as will be seen when I come to 
speak of the prevailing vices of seamen. An old man-of-war’s man is 
a very different being from a merchant-sailor. From mingling with so 
large a mass, he has been able to select such associates as pleased him, 
and thus to retain and strengthen his own peculiar tastes, feelings and 
habits. He has also been led to look well to his own rights, and to guard 
with jealous care against the encroachments of others. 

From the rigid discipline to which seamen in our navy are subjected, 
as also from the fact that they are closely pressed upon by the mass 
around them, they become peculiarly sensitive and selfish as to what 
they regard as their rights, and are greatly given to grumbling when they 
fancy themselves misused. As to seamanship, too, from being confined 
to a narrow round of duties, such as handling the ropes and sails in a 
given part of the ship, as, for example, on the forecastle, or in one of 
the tops, they become very skillful in performing these duties, but know 
little of anything else. Hence, a good merchant-sailor, who knows a 
little of everything, and not much of anything, about a ship, may not 
succeed well on board a man-of-war; while, on the other hand, a good 
navy sailor may know but little of many things required to be done on 
board a merchant vessel. Merchant-sailors, too, have to labor much 
harder, and bear more exposure to the weather, than seamen in our 
navy; and they are apt, withal, to be much more filthy in their habits, 
and slovenly in their dress, than they would be permitted to be on board 
a man-of-war. These remarks show, in one point of view, the importance 
of training men expressly for our naval service. 

There are several distinct classes of seamen to be met with on board 
our men-of-war. Of these, the first and most numerous are sailors by 


MEN AND THINGS IN THE AMERICAN NAVY. 


612 

profession, who, from the poverty of their parents, or some other cause, 
have early entered on a seafaring life, without such an education as 
would fit them to rise above the grade of common seamen, and in this 
condition they remain for life. A few of these have families, and are 
frugal, honest and trustworthy. By far the greater number, however, 
are reckless, profligate, intemperate and profane. Cut off at an early 
age from all correct moral and religious influence, and exposed to tempta¬ 
tion to vice in almost every form, they become the mere creatures of 
impulse, slaves to the will of despotic masters at sea, and the dupes of 
rapacious landlords and greedy harpies on shore. With no high and 
commanding motives to effort, in the hope of improving their condition, 
they yield themselves up to the pleasures of the moment, without regard 
to the future; and though, from the dangers of the sea, and exposure to 
corroding vices, and in sickly climes, they are in daily peril of their 
lives, yet, drowning reflection with reckless gayety, with sensual pleasure, 
or the drunkard’s cup of woe, they rush madly on in the way to death. 
“Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die,” seems to be their motto. 
We had on board our ship an old sailor, who ran away from his parents 
in Boston when nine years of age, and had been at sea, almost without 
cessation, forty-five years. In the year 1800, he was on board the Eng¬ 
lish frigate Austria, on the coast of Egypt, where he had the plague, of 
which two hundred out of two hundred and fifty on board died. He 
had been shipwrecked seven times. The year before he joined our 
ship, he was cast away on the Scvlla rocks, and was in the water two 
hours and a half. He lost his wife and two children by the cholera in 
New York; and, though himself one of thirteen children, he has now 
no near relative living. He was broken down with the rheumatism, and 
his lot was sad and cheerless indeed. Such is too often the condition 
of the few weather-beaten sailors, who are spared, almost by a miracle, to 
reach the period of old age. With no friends to care for them, and no 
means of support, they float like a weed torn from its native rock, where 
wind and wave may bear them. Perhaps they find a refuge in some 
naval hospital, or, cast forth on the cold charities of the world, they beg 
a humble pittance from door to door. 

Another class of seamen are those who are ruined in character or 
property, or both, by a course of vice, or by some single act of folly or 
of crime, but who have seen better days. Of many a commander of a 
man-of-war, as of King David when he gathered his bandit forces at 
the cave of Adullam, may it be truly said, “ And every one that was in 
distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discon¬ 
tented, gathered themselves unto him, and he became a captain over 
them.” Among these are merchants and others, who have failed in 
business, broken down play-actors, and sometimes professional men, the 
wayward and profligate sons of wealthy and respectable parents, con¬ 
victs from State prisons, who have been guilty of forgery, counterfeiting, 
house-breaking, or other gentlemanly crimes, with now and then a pirate, 
and one who has been engaged in the slave-trade, to say nothing of old 
sailors who were pressed into the English service during the last war, 
and are as familiar with Dartmoor prison and its usages as with the 
district school in which they spent their boyhood. We had one who had 
lived among the natives of one of the South Sea islands, and conformed, 
for many months, to their savage modes of life; another who had been 
with Major Ashley to the Rocky Mountains, and had many amusing 
stories of the Flathead and other tribes of Indians; and another still 


MEN AND THINGS IN THE AMERICAN NAVY. 


613 

who had been in the service of the fur-traders in the region of Hudson’s 
Bay. traveling hundreds of miles over the snow, with a heavy burden 
on his back. 

Seamen are perfectly accessible; and, from the free, social intercourse 
in which they indulge, will rarely refuse to answer a question of the 
most personal nature, if your manner is such as to gain their confidence. 
Indeed, they take peculiar pleasure in dwelling even on the darker por¬ 
tions of their past history, when they meet with one who will kindly 
listen to and sympathize with them. Many an hour have I spent, during 
the night watches, in listening to their singular narrations; and often 
have I thought, in reviewing the sketches of these stories in my journal, 
that, were one to collect an account of the most striking characters on 
board a man-of-war, as given by themselves, it would make a book of 
peculiar variety and effect. 

There was one man on board our ship who had fled from domestic 
troubles, but whose mind was oppressed with a sadness which nothing 
could remove. He was the son of an elder of one of the first churches 
in the city of New York, and having married a beautiful woman whom he 
tenderly loved, and by whom he had several children, he removed to Illinois, 
where he purchased a farm of several hundred acres. For some time 
he had suspected the fidelity of his wife; when returning from hunting 
one night, sooner than he was expected, he found her with her guilty 
paramour, a man of wealth, in the vicinity. Highly excited, he aimed 
his rifle at them, intending to shoot them both, when he was seized by 
his hired man, who thus prevented a fatal deed. Having obtained a 
divorce from his wife, she married again, and he, feeling wretched 
where he was, and fearing that, should he meet the ruthless destroyer 
of his happiness alone, he should, in a moment of excited wrath and 
anguish, be led to murder him, he leased his farm to one in whose care 
he left his children, and sought a refuge from his troubles on board a 
man-of-war. 

The most hopeless class of seamen, so far as moral reformation is 
concerned, are those who, like the squatters and others on the outskirts 
of civilization on land, have broken away from virtuous society, because 
they have forfeited the protection of the laws, by their crimes, or could 
not brook the restraints of religion, morality and law, or were unable, 
elsewhere than on board a man-of-war, to gratify their love of strong 
drink, or were conscious of being such helpless slaves of vice as to be 
wholly unfit to take care of themselves, and have, therefore, placed 
themselves in “ durance vile,” just as some men on shore wish to be 
imprisoned for the same reason. 

There is another small class of seamen, sons of respectable parents, 
who have become so from a love of adventure, an attachment to a sea¬ 
faring life, a strong desire to see foreign lands, or with a view to improve 
their health, or a wish, on the part of their friends, to check, by means 
of the rigid discipline of a ship, an unsubdued and refractory spirit. 

In treating of the peculiar characteristics of seamen, and the vices to 
which they are most addicted, I shall notice, first, their superstition. 
The old idea that Sunday is a lucky and Friday an unlucky day, because 
on one Christ was crucified, and on the other he rose from the dead, has 
a strong hold on the minds of most seamen. There are commanders, 
even in our navy, who would not sail from port on Friday if they could 
avoid it, and who would make peculiar efforts to do so on the Sabbath. 
There are still many vessels, on the masts of which a horse-shoe is 


MEN AND THINGS IN THE AMERICAN NAVY. 


614 

nailed, as a protection against the devil; and ship owners will rarely 
purchase a vessel which, by meeting with repeated accidents at sea, has 
proved to be unlucky. 

Sailors have a peculiar superstition with regard to cats, especially 
black ones. Some years since, two men fell from the mast-head on 
board one of the ships in our navy, in a single day, of whom one was 
killed, and the other had his arm broken. Finding that one of the crew 
had killed a cat the night before, his shipmates regarded that as the 
cause of these accidents, and could not be appeased until the man was 
severely whipped; and then, as no one would mess with him, it was 
necessary to send him on shore. Clergymen have, in times past, been 
regarded as bringing ill luck to a ship on board which they sail, on the 
ground that the devil owes them a spite, and, as prince of the power of 
the air, strives, by means of tempests, to destroy them. This supersti¬ 
tion may, however, have owed its origin to the story of Jonah, and the 
troubles which he brought upon his shipmates. 

There are those who regard the playing of a death-march as a sure 

sign that some one on board is soon to die; and I have known a highly 

intelligent officer who would punish a man for such an act as soon as for 
a gross crime, on the ground, as he said, that he never knew it fail of 
being soon followed by a death. When lying in the bay of Gibraltar, 
during a violent storm, two of our massive anchors were broken, and 
we were driven rapidly out to sea. There was, at the time, on board, 

the body of one of the crew, lying in a coffin, with a view to his being 

buried on shore. Being compelled, however, to inclose him in his ham¬ 
mock, and bury him at sea, the carpenter was compelled to cut the coffin 
up into small pieces, and throw it overboard, because the men were 
superstitious and fearful as to its remaining on board. 

The credulity of seamen as to ghosts and apparitions, good and bad 
signs, lucky and unlucky days, and the like, are owing, in part, to the 
peculiarly dangerous and exciting mode of life which they lead, to the 
many marvelous stories that are told in order to astonish the young and 
inexperienced, or to beguile the tedium of the night watches; but, more 
than all, to their being, from an early age, cut off from religious instruc¬ 
tion. There are seamen who most religiously believe that when a man 
has been hung from the fore-yard-arm, two voices always reply when the 
man who is stationed there by night is hailed, one being that of him who 
has been hung; nor would the wealth of the world induce them to keep 
watch there. 

That seamen have commonly much wit and humor, all know who have 
had intercourse with them. They have a great number of pithy expres¬ 
sions at ready command, and are very quick at repartee. This is owing 
to the fact that their mode of life is so peculiarly varied and exciting, 
that their minds act much more rapidly than those of most other men, 
as also to their being in such close and constant contact and collision 
with those around them, to which we may add the attention and applause 
secured by such as, by their ready wit, can aid in cheering the spirits 
of those around them, and thus relieve the monotony of a long and 
tedious voyage at sea. The craving for social excitement, on the part 
of seamen, leads them also to be very attentive hearers on the Sabbath, 
and few congregations on shore will follow a plain, but condensed and 
rapid, logical argument with so full an understanding of it as will a body 
of seamen on board our men-of-war. The wit and the songs of seamen 
are, for the most part, however, of a low, vulgar, and licentious cast. 


MEN AND THINGS IN THE AMERICAN NAVY. 615 

This is the more to be regretted, as seamen are fond of the excitement 
of music, and, where a sailor has a fine voice, his songs are often called 
for, as well by officers as by the men. 

As most seamen are, from an early age, cut off from kind parental 
restraint, and from moral and religious instruction, and exposed to the 
hardening and debasing influence of vice, it is not strange that, among 
other bad habits, they should form that of lying. Fear of punishment, 
too, leads them to resort to falsehood to conceal their guilt, when charged 
with it; nor dare they disclose the evil deeds of their shipmates, for fear 
of reproach and personal injury from them. Hence, most common 
sailors are inveterate liars, where their interest leads them to be so; nor 
is their word or oath, in such cases, regarded as of much value by those 
who know them well. One of our ship’s boats, with ten or twelve 
rowers, had been ashore at a port where we were lying at anchor, and 
the midshipman who had charge of it, as is often done, had given the 
men a bottle of ardent spirits to drink, with a view to gain favor with 

them. As the men came on board, the officer of the deck saw that they 
had been drinking, and charged them with it. They all, to a man, stoutly 
denied the charge, and persevered in doing so, even after the officer of 
the boat had admitted before them that he had given them the spirits, 
and, in thus doing, had violated the rules of the ship. Events of this 
kind are of frequent occurrence on shipboard. It is, indeed, true that 
we hear much of the noble frankness of seamen, in freely confessing 
their faults, just as if there was some merit in it. The amount of it is, 
however, that such is the standard of morals to which they have con¬ 
formed themselves, that they feel no guilt as to those things of which 
they so freely speak, but rather take pride in them. 

Thieves are in very ill odor on shipboard, mainly because every one 
is exposed to suffer from them. When detected and brought up for 
punishment, the boatswain’s mate always whips them with a relish. 
Still there is much thieving on board a man-of-war, and no small article 
of value is safe if exposed where it may be taken. Another prominent 
vice of seamen is selfishness. Many will, doubtless, be surprised at this 
statement. They have so often heard, in anniversary addresses and the 
like, that seamen are the most liberal, noble hearted and generous men 
in the world, that they really believe it to be true. But let us look, for 
a moment, at facts in the case. Seamen, on shipboard, are under such 
despotic rule, and are, in so many ways, checked and restrained, that 
they become peculiarly selfish and sensitive as to what they regard as 
their rights; and, where they dare to be so, are noisy and obstinate in 
defending them. 

Much of the apparent liberality of seamen is shown when, from the 
influence of ardent spirits, they are hardly moral agents. I have known 
a seaman on shore, in a foreign port, buy a donkey with its load of fresh 
meat on the way to market, and, taking out his jack-knife, he cut up the 
meat, and divided it among the poor who thronged around him, and 

then, turning the donkey adrift, he went on his way. He was so drunk, 
however, that he hardly knew what he was doing. Money, too, has not 
the same value to a sailor, who has no one to provide for but himself, 
that it has to others. When a seaman gives three or five dollars to a 
disabled shipmate, the only difference it makes with him is that he has 
three or five dollars less in two or three hundred dollars of which to be 
robbed, when drunk, or otherwise defrauded of, at the end of his cruise. 
Sailors are often tired of the land before they have spent all their 


MEN AND THINGS IN THE AMERICAN NAVY. 


616 

money, and are anxious to ship again. They feel much more at home 
to sit down on the deck, cut up their victuals with a jack-knife, and 
drink their tea out of a quart-cup, than to conform to table usages on 
shore. The same is true also of their clothes; while the unrighteous 
way in which they are fleeced by landlords and others, leads them to 
regard those around them as a set of landsharks, and to hasten on ship¬ 
board for safety. 

We had on board our ship an old quarter-master, who had been to sea 
from childhood. He said that once, after a long cruise, he was seven 
days on shore before he spent all his money, and that when he w r ent to 
the rendezvous to ship again, they scolded at him for having been gone 
so long. On one occasion he was paid off at Pensacola, and finding it 
difficult to get rid of his money, he hired a house for a month, with a 
man servant, and a yellow girl for a housekeeper. Having staid a few 
days, and paid all his bills, he had sixty-five dollars left, and not knowing 
how else to get rid of it, he had it all changed into silver half dollars, 
when, going to a plantation near, he gave each negro one of these coins, 
and then went and shipped for another cruise. 

Licentiousness, of the lowest and most debasing character, is the 
habitual and easily besetting sin of most common seamen. That a 
sailor has a wife in every port he visits is an axiom in their creed and 
practice; and, so far are they from being ashamed of this fact, that they 
will most resolutely argue in favor of this indulgence as right, on the 
ground that such is their course of life, that they cannot, like other men, 
well sustain the social and domestic relations, and perform the duties of 
the marriage connection. And this unblushing advocacy of the grossest 
vice, must, forsooth, be regarded as a specimen of the noble frankness 
of the sailor, of which we hear so much. Allurements to licentiousness 
are among the surest and most common means of enticing seamen into 
those snares, which greedy and rapacious landlords so often spread for 
them. When the agent of these landsharks visits a ship just returning 
from a distant voyage, he excites the passions of his wretched dupes by 
offering his services as a guide to her whose “ house is the way to hell, 
leading down to the chambers of death.” 

In times past, it has been customary with our naval commanders, when 
in foreign ports, both of savage and of so-called civilized and Christian 
nations, to permit hundreds of abandoned females to spend nights on 
board our national ships; thus converting them into floating brothels, and 
deeply disgracing the land from whence they came. The experiment 
was tried on a limited scale by a base and profligate commander, on 
board two ships belonging to the station where we cruised; the one just 
before our arrival, and the other while we were lying in the same port. 
So decided, however, was the opposition of many of the officers to this 
vile profanation of our country’s flag, that the evil was soon checked, 
and did not spread to the other vessels in the squadron. So gross and 
brutal are most common seamen in this respect, that the most serious 
difficulties which occur on board our national ships arise, from opposing 
their wishes for liberty to go on shore in foreign ports, mainly with a 
view to gratify their lower passions and appetites. 

The known corruption, in principle and practice, of many of the 
younger and some of the older officers in the navy, as to licentiousness, 
is a serious obstacle to efforts for the reformation of the common sea¬ 
men. What good can be hoped for, in this respect, when the commander 
of a ship or squadron, when wintering in a foreign port, openly hires 


MEN AND THINGS IN THE AMERICAN NAVT. 617 

a house, and keeps a mistress as an undisguised member of his house¬ 
hold, inviting his youngest officers to his table, and sending home in a 
national ship the illegitimate offspring of a former cruise? For an 
unmarried officer in our navy, from the youngest to the oldest, to be 
notoriously and habitually licentious when abroad, is not considered 
seriously disreputable, or a matter to be concealed in common conversa¬ 
tion ; and this because so few are without sin in that respect, that no 
correct public sentiment is embodied against this form of vice. Where 
young officers are first corrupted by low and gross conversation when at 
sea, and then with passions strong and reckless, and far removed from 
home and its virtuous and wholesome restraints, are exposed in foreign 
ports to the most seductive influences, and enticed along in the pathway 
to ruin by debased companions, who would reduce all around them to 
their own degraded level of infamy and vice — young officers, thus 
placed, are almost sure to fall; and should they afterward chance to 
reform, the oppressive consciousness of their own past misdeeds, fully 
known as they are to those who associate with them, will commonly 
restrain them from any strong and decided efforts to check the onward 
flow of corruption and vice around them. 

Gambling is a vice to which our naval officers are too much addicted 
when in foreign ports, and especially when confined for the winter at 
such places as Mahon, where there is but little in the way of social 
intercourse, or of literary and intellectual amusements, to interest and 
attract them. In such places, sharpers assemble, and open their gamb¬ 
ling-shops, with no other object than, by the thousand frauds and tricks 
of play, to fleece those wretched dupes who place themselves in their 
power. It is said that when our ships of war wintered some years 
since at Smyrna, Spanish gamblers repaired there, with their implements 
of trade; thus making a voyage of several hundred miles, rather than 
lose a golden harvest. 

As these gambling places are open to all, the young officer visits them 
at first merely as a spectator. He wishes, he says, to study human 
nature, and see the world. He gazes upon the scene with lively interest. 
He watches the play of absorbing passions, as they glow in the faces of 
those around him—the rapid succession of hope and despair, of deep 
depression and lively transport. In a moment, as if by some magic 
spell, the shining heaps of gold become the spoil of him who, but just 
before, was almost penniless. Alas! the temptation is too strong for 
him. He begins by staking a small amount, and thus the fever grows 
upon him. If, for a time, successful, he is injured by spending in reck¬ 
less dissipation the wealth so easily acquired. If stripped of his own 
means, he is tempted to borrow all he can of others, that, by staking it, 
he may indulge his love of play, or feed the momentary and delusive 
hope of regaining what he has lost. Unless taught by sad experience, 
he early breaks away from this seductive course; the love of play becomes 
a desperate and engrossing passion, which absorbs the soul, and destroys 
his relish for all minor excitements. Literary pursuits, and the purer 
and more elevated social pleasures, lose their relish, and he gives him¬ 
self fully up to the influence of this feverish excitement. 

Well do I remember my feelings, when conversing with a foreign mer¬ 
chant of uncommon intelligence and worth, speaking of a commander 
who had left the place several thousand dollars in debt. He said that 
he came to him, just before he left for home, and begged him, with tears 
in his eyes, to become his security for a year for one thousand dollars. 


MEN AND THINGS IN THE AMERICAN NAVY. 


618 

most solemnly pledging himself that he would pay the debt within that 
time, and that his bondman should suffer no inconvenience for it. Since 
that time he had received several letters from the officer in question, in 
which he did not even allude to this debt, and the merchant had been 
compelled to pay it, though he knew not how to spare the funds for the 
purpose. He then asked me if such were the principles, and such the 
value of the word of honor of the highest officers of our navy. Such 
acts of unprincipled swindling leave a stain of infamy on our national 
flag, and their corrupting influence extends, in the way of example, from 
the higher to the lower grades of our naval officers. 

One form of imposition, from which seamen in our navy suffer, is 
connected with their half-pay tickets. There is a rule, by which, when 
they go abroad, they can receive a certificate, which entitles the holder 
of it to draw half his wages, as they become due, from the navy agent 
of the station at home, where it is given. Of these, sailors are often 
defrauded by landlords and other sharpers, but especially by their so 
called wives. These women, who are often the lowest and most abandoned 
harpies in our large cities, manage to secure the confidence of the sea¬ 
men of our navy, when they are on shore for a spree, and thus secure 
to themselves the benefit of a half-pay ticket for years. It is said of 
one of them at New York, that the disbursing officer noticed that she 
came quite often for pay, and, on inquiry, he found that she had been 
married to two seamen, whose cruises commenced and ended at different 
times, so that one was sure to be at sea while the other was at home. 
By thus entertaining each of them a week or two, once in two or three 
years, she received full seamen’s pay, equal, perhaps, to one hundred 
and fifty dollars a year. 

Intemperance in the use of ardent spirits, is to the seaman literally 
the mother of abominations, and the prolific source of most of his 
degradation and deep and bitter woe. When our ship was taking in 
stores at the navy-yard, before leaving home, one of the crew managed 
to whitewash a barrel filled with whisky, and, thus passing it on board as 
a tar-barrel, he rolled it forward on deck, and at night, having broken in 
the head, and using an old shoe for a cup, all helped themselves, and 
twenty-eight were found drunk the next morning. We had on board a 
man who, in going out to the Mediterranean, in one of our national ships, 
a short time before, had become intoxicated, and being confined for it, 
and deprived of his grog, so strong was his thirst for ardent spirits, that 
he drank a quantity of paint in which whisky had been mixed, though 
he knew that it was rank poison. 

A common way of bringing ardent spirits on board, is in what are 
called snakes; that is, in the skins of the intestines of animals, which 
sailors, who have been on shore, wind around their legs under their 
large trowsers. When they come on board, they are always examined 
by passing the hand over every part of their bodies. Boatmen who 
bring on board articles to sell, often manage to conceal ardent spirits, 
and smuggle it on board, knowing, as they do, that a sailor will give 
almost any price for it. In one case, a man used to take bladder-skins, 
and putting them, when empty, into a large earthern jug, would fill them 
with spirits, and then, tying a string around the mouth, dropped them. 
Having thus filled the jug, he poured in a little milk among them, so 
that, when he came on board, he would open his jug, and show his milk, 
and was permitted to pass on, when by breaking the jug, or piercing the 
skins, he came at the liquor, and sold it. At the island of Malta, ardent 


MEN AND THINGS IN THE AMERICAN NAVY. 619 

spirits are smuggled on board in cigar-boxes, lined with parchment, those 
who bring them having one box of cigars open, which they show, in 
passing, to the officer of the deck. 

The most singular means, however, I have ever known of obtaining 
ardent spirits, was the following: When we reached Mahon, most of 
the crew of the Delaware 74, were at the hospital on an island in the 
harbor, with the cholera among them. Some of the stronger ones were 
employed, from time to time, to cover the walls of the hospital with a 
wash, made of Spanish white, olive oil, and whisky. The lieutenant in 
command, perceiving that, when he was absent, but little was done, con¬ 
cealed himself, and, unseen by the men, watched their movements. 
He found that they waited until the oil in their paint-tub had collected 
together on the top, with the whisky next below, and the Spanish white 
at the bottom, when, running a quill through the oil, they sucked out the 
whisky and drank it. 

Many of our crew told me, that the great number of merchant ships 
which sail on the temperance plan, led them to go on board a man-of- 
war, where they could have their grog. Their allowance was half a pint 
of whisky a day, which, on board our ship, was put in a large tub, and 
mingled freely with water, and served out to them three times a day. 
Thus, the time taken up in serving out this poison is nearly equal to 
that taken up by their meals, to say nothing of the space occupied by it 
on shipboard, which, in long voyages, is needed for water and provisions. 

Those who relinquish their allowance of spirits for any period of not 
less than three successive months, receive in the place of it one dollar 
and eighty cents a month. Of about five hundred on board our ship, 
less than one hundred had, at the end of the first year of our cruise, 
drawn their grog the whole time; and by thus saving their money, they 
were able to supply themselves with many little comforts in the way of 
provision and clothing, of which they must otherwise have been destitute. 
In one case, the whole crew of one of our sloops of war stopped their 
grog for two months, that thus they might have money with which to buy 
a sword to present to a favorite officer, and then returned to their old 
courses again. 

We had on board an old man whose life, from his youth up, had been 
a truly eventful one. He had, among other things, been impressed into 
the English navy during the last war; his papers, proving him an Amer¬ 
ican citizen, had been torn to pieces before his face by a British officer; 
he had escaped from his ship, and lived for some time among the natives 
in the East Indies; had for a long time been an inmate of Dartmoor 
Prison, where, being one of the shrewdest of the universal Yankee nation, 
he had carried on an active trade in selling beer. Having returned to 
Boston, at the close of the war, after an absence of eight or nine years, 
some of his friends came a distance of forty miles to see him, furnished 
him with money with which to clothe himself and go home. This he 
spent in a spree, and shipped on board a man-of-war for a foreign cruise 
of four years, and sailed without seeing his wife and children. When 
with us, his children were respectable and prosperous, and would have 
provided well for him at home, or he might at any time have had com¬ 
mand of a vessel, if he would have consented to sign the temperance 
pledge. This, however, he had refused, and, during the early part of 
our cruise, his allowance of whisky so addled his brain, that he was 
almost an idiot, being stupid and silly in the extreme. Having been 
persuaded to give up his grog, he suffered severely by the change; and 


620 


MEN AND THINGS IN THE AMERICAN NAVY. 


such were the fears for the result, enfeebled as his constitution had been 
by long indulgence, that the surgeon, the captain, and other officers 
advised him to commence drinking again. He replied, that he had 
bound himself not to do so, and he would not, if he died. At length his 
health, strength, and vigor of mind returned, and, as a petty officer, he 
was one of the shrewdest and most diligent and useful men on board. 
The change seemed almost miraculous, and one could hardly believe 
him to be the same man as before. 

A sore evil connected with issuing spirit rations on board our men-of- 
war, is found in the fact, that seamen often lose their lives by neglecting 
to report themselves until disease has such a hold upon them, that they 
cannot be cured, and this, merely, because they cannot have their grog 
when they are on the sick-list. I had a shipmate, who, from this cause, 
suffered under a raging fever, without medical treatment, until within 
three days of his death, when he was past all hope. Another of our 
crew was sick for several months, during which time, his character seemed 
to have undergone a radical religious change. As he began to recover 
and come on deck, the surgeon strictly charged him not to taste of ardent 
spirits, as, in the state he was, it would surely kill him. Led by the 
force of appetite, however, and the persuasions of his shipmates, to take 
a drink of grog, he died a day or two afterward. When we first reached 
Mahon, twenty-three men belonging to the Delaware had just died of 

the cholera. Commodore P -r -told me, that not one of them would 

have been lost, had they obeyed orders as to reporting themselves early 
to the surgeon of the ship, and that the love of strong drink prevented 
them from doing so. 

Two men on board our ship, were one night engaged in a drunken 
quarrel, when, in falling, one of them had his own knife thrust into his 
groin, by which the femoral artery was severed so as soon to end his 
life. Both of these men had respectable connexions in the vicinity of 
Boston, and the one who was killed had been a merchant in that city. 

I overheard one of our men at breakfast, lamenting the degradation 
and ruin which intemperance had brought upon him, and with strong 
feeling, telling his messmates of the efforts which a pious father had 
made to reclaim him, and how he revered and loved the good old man, 
and how often he thought of him, though many years had passed since 
he had seen him. With burning shame, he compared his own wretched 
and degraded state with the high standing and success in life of his 
brothers, who were virtuous men. Soon after this, I went and pressed 
him with the folly of his course, and he saw and felt that it was worse 
than madness. At noon I saw him again, and oh, it was enough to break 
one’s heart to see him. To drown the voice of conscience, he had 
drained the cup of woe. Confined, and in irons, he rolled about upon 
the deck, a drunken, raving maniac. He howled and prayed, and cursed 
and blasphemed the name of his God, all in a single breath. And oh, 
that unearthly howl! it made my blood run cold, as it rung through the 
ship, it seemed so like the voice of wailing from the pit of woe. It was 
no stupid, brutal cry: it had in it the soul of a man, and was filled with 
the anguish of a deathless spirit. It came, too, from one of warm heart, 
and fine feelings, who, but for this single curse, might have been a man 
indeed, wearing the image of his God. Then I thought, that could this 
man, sunken as he was, but be placed within the halls of Congress, where 
those who make our laws could see and hear him, it would do more than 
any human eloquence, to lead them, as one man, to rise up and refuse 



MEN AND THINGS IN THE AMERICAN NAVY. 621 

longer to furnish the poor sailor with this liquid fire. I have blushed for 
shame when I have seen those who, as seamen, wore our naval uniform, 
and such even as had the badge of petty officers, reeling, raving, and 
belching forth their curses in the streets of a foreign city, or lying dead 
drunk upon the pavement, the objects of pity, or scoffed and sneered at 
by hundreds who were passing every hour, and exposed when night 
came on, to be robbed even to the very clothes they wore. I have also 
heard little children, when at play, freely using the vilest and most wicked 
oaths, which were the only English words they knew, and which had 
been fixed in their memory by hearing them so often used by our sea¬ 
men. They did not know the meaning of these words, and when I have 
told them that what they said was bad and wicked, they said that they 
did not know it, and would say so no more. 

I have one charge more to bring against intemperance, as it exists in 
our navy: it is the crime of murder, and the guilt of shedding human 
blood. So far as I could learn by observation and inquiry, not a winter 
passes at Mahon, in which one or more of our seamen is not murdered, 
either in drunken quarrels with each other when on shore, or with the 
natives there. The witnesses of these deeds of blood, too, are commonly 
so far intoxicated that their evidence is good for nothing, and hence 
justice cannot be done. The guilty do not, however, always escape 
detection and punishment, as the following case will show. 

Among those who went on shore on liberty, the last winter we were 
in Mahon, were two young men who were shipmates and friends, and 
about twenty-one years of age. Instead of returning, as commanded to 
do, at the end of twenty-four hours, they were on shore a week, when one 
of them came on board, and was confined for being drunk, and disobeying 
orders. The next morning, having slept off the stupor caused by drinking, 
as one of the lieutenants of the ship was passing near him, he rushed 
toward him and, shaking with violence the irons which bound him, ex¬ 
claimed, “ I am a murderer!” “ For God’s sake, then, keep your hands 
off from me,” said the lieutenant, shrinking back, startled at the guilty 
horror of the man. He then confessed that he had killed his friend, and 
offered to go and point out where the body was. An officer with a guard 
of marines, was sent with him, when he led them to a retired place, 
where the body was lying in a natural position, as if sleeping, with a 
small switch in its hand, and a pair of shoes beside it. The head was 
badly broken and mashed, and the work of death had evidently been 
instantaneous. 

The story told by the murderer was, that he and his friend, during 
their absence, had every day carried a supply of ardent spirits with them, 
to some retired place in the fields, and there remained, more or less 
intoxicated, until night, when they returned to the city to lodge. At 
length, when in a kind of drunken stupor, he had tried to awaken his 
friend, who was sleeping; and, failing to do it readily, he took a large 
stone, weighing about fifty pounds, and raising it some feet, let it fall upon 
the head of the sleeping man. This he did twice, though the first stroke 
must have caused instant death. The body was removed, and I per¬ 
formed over it the rites of Christian burial, when it was laid in the grave. 
The murderer was tried by a court-martial, and sentenced to be hung 
from the foreyard-arm of the ship, to which he belonged, six weeks from 
time of his trial. 

Were we to turn from the seamen to the officers on board our men-of- 
war, a volume might be written in tracing the various causes which unite 


f 


MEN AND THINGS IN THE AMERICAN NAVY. 


622 

in forming their characters and directing their conduct, and in making 
them what they should, or what they should not be. I can, however, only 
glance, in closing, at a few peculiarities of the singular, unnatural, and 
highly artificial state of society, under the influence of which, as existing 
iu our naval service, the minds and morals of our officers are shaped. 
Midshipmen ought., before receiving a warrant, to be closely examined 
as to their habits, moral character, and health. Many a reprobate and 
ungovernable son has, as a last resort, been placed in the navy with a 
view to subdue him, when, perhaps, his constitution has been impaired 
by vicious indulgence, or undermined by disease; and thus, physically 
weak and morally debased and depraved, has become a burden to the 
service, and a curse to all around him. Unable to endure the exposure 
and fatigue of duty, beneath the scorching sun, or chilling night-air, or 
drenching rain, or amid the howling tempest, he hangs upon the sick-list, 
and the duties he should do fall heavily upon others. Delicate boys, 
transferred, at a tender age, from the school-room, or luxurious parlor, to 
the steerage of a man-of-war, with its coarse fare and hard accommoda¬ 
tions, its noise and riot, its loss of rest and fatiguing duty on deck, are 
full apt to wilt and wither, like the tender plant torn from its native 
earth and placed in harder and more ungenial soil. These causes, with 
youthful intemperance and licentiousness, have not only driven many 
from our navy, but have undermined or seriously injured the health and 
constitutions of lar^e numbers still connected with it. I once heard a 
number of lieutenants give it as their united and deliberate opinion, that 
were there an invalid list formed in our navy, of those who were perma¬ 
nently diseased, it would embrace one half the officers of the grade of 
lieutenant and upward. Most of these, it is true, are engaged in active 
duty, but a little extra exposure to the weather, or over exertion, or 
undue indulgence of some of the animal appetites / brings them upon the 
sick-list, and the burden of their duties rests severely on others. 

The late increase of pay, in our navy, has a tendency to encourage 
and enable the younger officers to appear and dress like gentlemen. 
Compel a young man to live on coarse fare and dress poorly, to use his 
sheets for a table-cloth, to borrow clothes of his messmates and be meanly 
served, and you humble and degrade him, and greatly lessen his pride 
of character and self-respect. A man’s conduct and language are 
affected not a little by the dress and style of living of himself and those 
around him. An increase of pay furnishes the means of an earlier and 
better settlement in married life than could otherwise be hoped for; and 
no one, who has not witnessed the fact referred to, can know how much is 
effected by a devoted and honorable attachment to a lovely and virtuous 
woman, in restraining from vice wild and reckless young men, when 
peculiarly exposed to temptation, and cut oft' from all moral and 
religious restraint. 

I am happy to state, that there is an increasing number of officers in 
our navy, who, by their virtues and their moral and religious worth, are 
a credit to the service, and would grace any circle in which they might 
be placed. There are others, however, and sorry am I that it is so, who, 
though wearing swords and epaulets, and claiming to be gentlemen, 
are so in dress alone; their conduct and their language grossly belying 
their outward appearance and their vaunted claims to gentility. Some 
of this class are so lost to all sense of decency, that their common con¬ 
versation at the mess-table and elsewhere, is most loathsome and offensive 
to every virtuous mind, and such, withal, as should forever exclude them 


MEN AND THINGS IN THE AMERICAN NAVY. 623 

trom all decent society. There are some prominent evils connected 
with the system of promotion to rank and office, existing in our navy. 
Where reference is had in promotion to the time one has been in the 
service alone, and not to merit, each one being elevated to a higher rank 
when his turn comes, it will, of course, happen that some, and it may be 
many, will reach the highest grade of office, who, by their want of self- 
control, of natural talent, of courage, of good morals or education, are 
wholly unfit for the station they occupy. It is often true, also, that the 
weakest and most worthless officers, have the most influential friends and 
connexions to stand by them in the hour of trouble, and shield them from 
their just deserts. A commander, convicted of theft and other base 
crimes, has been freed from the sentence of a court-martial, by the dis¬ 
covery, on the part of a learned friend, of a slight informality in the 
proceedings of the court; and the wretch, guilty, but unharmed, has been 
sent back to his station, to tyrannize over those by whose means he had 
been brought to trial. 

A weak and timid commander may not only disgrace his country in 
time of action, but, when sailing in warm and sickly latitudes, may fear 
to run near enough to the coast to secure the benefit of the land breezes, 
or to avail himself, so far as it is prudent to do so, of the breath of the 
tornado to bear him onward, instead of putting his ship directly before 
it, and permitting it to carry him in a direction opposite to that in which he 
should go. Thus may the cowardice of a single man endanger the lives 
of scores or hundreds, by detaining them where the deadly breath of the 
pestilence reaches them. Such a man may, through natural weakness 
of character, be scarcely a moral agent, and the guilt and blame in the 
case must rest upon the government which employs such wretched 
tools. 

It has been said by one long familiar with our navy, that there are 
many intimacies, but few friendships, among the officers. The reason 
of this, is found in the frequent collisions of feelings, arising from con¬ 
flicting claims to rank and honor, and the jealousy with which officers 
of the lower grades regard the standing and authority of those above 
them. The eager thirst for rank and promotion, attended as they are 
by higher authority, increased pay, and better fare and accommodations 
on shipboard or elsewhere, leads the younger officers to feel anything 
but unmingled grief for the death of those above them; nor is the chance 
of promotion connected with war, or the cruise of a ship or squadron in 
sickly climes, viewed without interest by the eager aspirants for rank and 
office. This, surely, is a gross perversion of the moral feelings and 
sympathies of our nature. 

Though seamen often meet with incidents which excite the feelings, 
far more than anything which occurs on land would do, yet, they not 
unfrequently sacrifice, in a great degree, the religious benefit they might 
derive from impressive dispensations of the providence of God, by their 
unrestrained indulgence of wit and humor. Examples of this occur in 
the epitaphs which they compose for their deceased shipmates. Of these, 
the following, copied from monuments in the graveyard where our sea¬ 
men are buried, at Mahon, may serve as a specimen. Over the inscri ption 
which follows, the outlines of a cask are drawn. The epitaph reads 
thus: 

u In memory of William Mulloy, a native of Troy, state of New York, 
a cooper on board the United States ship Delaware 74. His adze 
becoming edgeless, his staves worm-eaten, his hoops consumed, his flags 


624 MEN AND THINGS IN THE AMERICAN NAVY. 

expended, and his bungs decayed, he yielded up his trade, with his life, 
on the twenty-ninth of April, 1829.” The following explains itself: 

“ Although his skin’s of dusky hue, 

His heart was pure, his friendship true: 

His glass upon this earth is run, 

He ’ll rise again in kingdom come. 

His duty he performed with care. 

As captain’s cook of Delaware.” 


Another,— 


“ The bark is waiting, 

I must be ready ; 

Charon put off, 

Steer small and steady.” 

There has been a change for the better, great and strongly marked, 
in the general character and deportment of the officers and men of our 
navy> within a few years past; and, in repeated instances, chaplains have 
been cheered and encouraged amid the peculiarly trying and self-denying 
labors of their office, by a general seriousness among those who sailed 
with them, and the commencement, on the part of many, of *a sober, 
devout, and religious course of life. Some, who were formerly officers 
in the navy, are now able, pious, and successful preachers of the Gospel; 
and there are others still, who are now connected with the naval service, 
whose education, talents, piety, and knowledge of the world are such as 
would fit them for peculiar usefulness in the clerical profession. 

































































































































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